Nigel Kennedy and the SSO @ QPAC

Last night J and I hopped on the bus to have a good night out – dinner on Little Stanley St at Obsession, followed by Nigel Kennedy and the Sydney Symphony Orchestra playing Mozart’s Violin Concerto No.4 in D, K218 and Beethoven’s Violin Concerto in D major Op, 61.He’s a strange bloke, is Nigel. Cockney sorta accent, very interesting stage manner (including gangsta style handshakes with the concertmaster) and he “warmed up” with the Praeludium from Bach’s Solo Partita number 3 (in E Major). I’ve been listening to Richard Tognetti’s version of the Solo Partitas and Sonatas for about a year now and it was very interesting to hear the difference in tone. Even allowing for the fact that we were sitting up the back of the QPAC Concert Hall, Kennedy’s version seemed quite a bit softer in tone, though every bit as vibrant.The Mozart… well, I reckon Mozart has written better works so I found it quite disappointing. Except for Kennedy’s cadenza, that is – first time I’ve experienced a “whole of orchestra” cadenza. It was really, really good. I hope he records it at some point because it’s definitely worth hearing.To round out the first half, Kennedy and the SSO Concertmaster, Dene Olding (who he went to Juilliard with) played some short Bartok pieces. Never been a fan of Bartok, really, so this left me cold.The second half was Beethoven, and a much better piece. Where I found the Mozart to be sort of thin and ill-defined, Beethoven’s work was well fleshed out, had serious depth and had much greater exploration of its themes. Of course, I know, he had a greater range of instruments to work with and he wrote it aged 36 whereas Mozart was 19 when he wrote K218. And it shows.To finish off the concert they then played Csardas and an arrangement of Hendrix’s Purple Haze. Reminded both J and I of Fourplay String Quartet in style, just a bit. Interesting to experience a similar crossover for classically-trained musicians when they try their hand at Jazz or Rock. Very interesting indeed.So we had a very nice evening, caught the bus home and turned into pumpkins.