Concerts don’t usually start before the ensemble arrive on stage, but the Australian Chamber Orchestra aren’t your usual orchestra. Most pianists don’t warm up for their concerto with a cameo on continuo harpsichord, either – but Alexander Melnikov isn’t most pianists.
Bach’s Ricercar a 6 from The Musical Offering exploded into life with most musicians still in motion. Arranged by ACO’s director, violinist Richard Tognetti, the opening was starkly dissonant. Bow attacks were vicious (more rhythm than pitch), the tone both supremely blended and anarchically nasty. That’s the thing about an elite ensemble whose 17 core string players perform on exceptionally valuable historic instruments: if you can weave magic from gut and horsehair – and their Ricercar also featured passages of liquid smoothness and an ending with vivid, organ-like intensity – then ugliness becomes another expressive effect.
Melnikov joined a smaller group for Bach’s Brandenburg Concerto No 3. The outer movements were fast and bottom-heavy, the violins’ relentless energy earthed by the ensemble’s three cellos and double bass (the latter’s pizzicatos dropped like massive anchors) while Melnikov sat serene in their midst. His second-movement cadenza with Tognetti was ultra-stylish and a welcome change of pace.
Shostakovich’s Piano Concerto No 1 was a masterclass in chamber music-making: faced away from Tognetti, Melnikov remained in intimate contact. Shifts of mood were constant and collective – a hint of Chopin here, a blush of Romantic passion there, biting neoclassicism all over the place. Trumpeter Jeroen Berwaerts’s solos were crystal-toned, injecting a flash of circus pizzazz when needed.
In the second half, the exquisite fragments and half-remembered counterpoint of Sofia Gubaidulina’s Reflections on the Theme B-A-C-H spooled out in near-darkness – newly poignant after the composer’s recent death – and ran straight into more Bach. Those baroque surroundings also coloured Shostakovich’s Chamber Symphony, where contrapuntal themes were handled as if precious relics. Elsewhere melodies were starkly vibrato-free, open strings raw, bows like cleavers.
The ACO turns 50 in 2025; Tognetti has been its leader for 35 years. The young firebrand has gradually become its senior figure. But some things haven’t changed: the intensity, the fearlessness, the curiosity. This remains rule-bending at its most revelatory.
