"In a universe where all is possible, what might a flute dream?" If this is something that has been bothering you, you might like to refer to Carl Vine's Pipe Dreams, the second of two pieces in this programme of contemporary Australian music put together by Richard Tognetti, the dynamic leader and director of the almost equally dynamic Australian Chamber Orchestra.
The question is posed by Vine in his note on the piece; the answer seems mainly to involve vapid flights of athletic somersaults over a motoring string accompaniment, with a solo cello to take over in the slower middle passage when things get too lyrical. All very pretty, and all played with virtuosity by Emmanuel Pahud, the nearest thing we've had to a star flautist since James Galway.
And all with the effect of making Szymanowski's String Quartet No 2, which followed in Tognetti's own arrangement, seem a masterpiece of eloquence and feeling. It would, admittedly, be a strong work even without being thrown into such relief - Tognetti exploits an orchestral scope that is already present in a mercurial and often angry score, and the ACO seized upon its expressive range.
The other recent Australian work came over far more strongly. Georges Lentz's Te Deum Laudamus is based on a very simple idea: the strings play steady, regular chords, first muted, then percussively loud, before receding. At times these form a kind of chorale melody, at times they are thick clusters of indistinguishable notes; but both, intriguingly, seem to grow from the same starting point.
The Lentz formed the centre point of a long but rewarding first half otherwise made up of baroque music: Vivaldi, Corelli, Handel and a flute concerto, with a slightly monochrome Pahud, by Jean-Marie Leclair. The ACO made this sometimes staid repertoire seem irresistible: all were standing, except the cellists, and playing with rhythmic vitality, forceful energy and something that can only be described as balls. There is nothing holding British ensembles back from chucking out the niceties and performing with this kind of bravado - so why don't more of them try it?
