The Bad and the Beautiful

ASO at Adelaide Town Hall, 4 July 2025

A mixed night at the Adelaide Symphony Orchestra’s programme entitled “Mythic”, featuring a piece of that name by someone from Tashkent named Elena Kats-Chernin. Described as conjuring “the atmosphere of a mystical cave…where shadowy strings and twinkling winds reflect the faint glimmer of light in a cavernous realm“, it is a mess, frankly, like some cacophonous tune from a  Hanna-Barbera cartoon meeting the score from “Out of Africa.” But it had pleasant things within what we might loosely call its structure, which is more than we can say for the drivel that is Stravinsky’s “Petrushka”, a harsh and abrasive homage to dangling marionettes that is even more insulting as it bears my name as a hypocoristic. Styled by the programme note as “his zippy ballet score that brings to life some seriously mischievous puppets,” we found it boring and interminable. Emilia Hoving conducted with confounding enthusiasm.

Now for the beautiful, Beethoven’s Piano Concerto No.5, “Emperor,” featuring world-renowned Spanish pianist Javier Perianes. Here conductor, pianist and the ASO shone as they should. Absolutely beautiful!