A clear, lyrical intensity, all too short-lived
The Age
Tuesday March 23, 2010
PROFUSION: SARA MACLIVER WITH MELBOURNE CHAMBER ORCHESTRA Melbourne Recital Centre, March 21 John Slavin Reviewer IN ANY soloist recital, whether instrumental or vocal, there always comes a moment that in afterthought is emblematic of the entire program. That moment came with soprano Sara Macliver when she sang her first offering off-stage €” part of a work by Sibelius called Kuolema (or Death), a suite of incidental music for a play of the same name. From that suite comes the famous Valse Triste, played here by the Melbourne Chamber Orchestra conducted by Kristian Winther.Macliver's contribution was a wordless, mysterious lullaby which lasted no more than three minutes. She also participated in a second Sibelius piece, the Arioso for soprano and strings, described as a contrast between the processes of nature, a withered rose and the turbulence of the human heart. It too, like the rose, was short-lived.She fared better in the bracket of three lyric poems by John Shaw Neilson set to music by Calvin Bowman to match a previous song cycle called I would singa little while €” appropriate irony. Macliver's soprano is as clear and transparent as ever with dramatic intensity in the top register. But thesongs were slight, an elegant wallow in lyrical sentimentality.And that was her contribution, hardly worth the visit.MCO director William Hennessy attempted to link the two halves of his program by performing a compilation of four short suites by Sibelius played with romantic warmth and lightness of touch in the first half. The superb opener, Shostakovich's Chamber Symphony dedicated "to the victims of fascism and war" and its elegiac anger had set a curious autumnal mood, however, from which the works following could not escape.
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