WASO return to Perth Concert Hall features Aaron Wyatt, Rachmaninov & Strauss with Asher Fisch & Yeol Eum Son

WA Symphony Orchestra’s season launch on Friday was a warm welcome home to Perth Concert Hall for Noongar composer-conductor Aaron Wyatt, whose WA premiere, The Coming Dawn, opened the bill.

Darkness filled the auditorium, then a glimmer of light and a low drone as shimmering strings and mellow vibraphone summoned the mystery before sunrise.

Wyatt was a commanding figure, his broad, decisive gestures drawing a purposeful crescendo of symphonic sound, punctuated by clapsticks, over deep pedal notes from Richard Walley’s didgeridoo.

Guttural tones lurked beneath the surface then emerged as an echo of ancient land, underpinning bell chimes in vibraphone.

Originally a string quartet with didgeridoo and vibraphone, the orchestral version on debut here with brass and full strings had its own distinct palette; tuning to trumpet in the absence of woodwind.

A second surge of energy in strings, insistent in mid-register, spawned another crescendo across the ensemble while the didgeridoo held its ground, unhurried by musical evolution as the orchestra faded to funereal beats in percussion and breath effects in didgeridoo.

Heartfelt applause for Wyatt and Walley broke to a long reset for Rachmaninov’s Third Piano Concerto, the signature piece for the program.

Surging, lilting orchestral lines under principal conductor Asher Fisch’s baton led in Yeol Eum Son’s piano, a simple melody played in limpid tones then bursting with elastic fluidity, rippling across the instrument.

Yeol Eum was effortlessly graceful as the demands of the piece evolved; a brief cadenza cueing sonorous ensemble sounds, falling back to rhythmic interludes echoed in piano before morphing to rhapsodic musing, accompanied by celestial horn (Eve McEwen).

Energy surged again in cascades down the keyboard to a rapid solo romp, continued over bass then woodwind, then playful perorations before darkening to minor mode; ebbing and flowing like the early autumn weather.

Dance took over solo and ensemble, collapsing in tumult then resolving once more to meditation.

Yeol Eum was across every transition and Fisch seemed hard-wired to her delivery; pausing for an agile unaccompanied section before the soloist threw her modest bodyweight at the keyboard to double down in passionate passages then dissolve in rivulets over flute (Andrew Nicholson), oboe (Liz Chee), clarinet (Som Howie) and horn.

Yeol Eum entranced the audience in a silvery display — as horns then woodwind echoed the opening figure — before rolling into a gently fulminating finale.

And that was just the first movement of a gargantuan work.

Serene strings and woodwind announced the Intermezzo as horn filled out the palette before piano exploded in low range then softened in contemplation; floridly melodic then dramatic as Yeol Eum warmed to the task.

Pausing briefly, she dove into a tortured Finale that laid Rachmaninov’s Russian soul on the rack; fragments of familiar melody interwoven with melodrama and symphonic splendour.

Ebb and flow gave the soloist full scope in expression and technique, by turns earnest then whimsical; the orchestra clinging to her like an expert dance partner.

Horns and woodwind ignited another reset; piano again rolling out a gymnastic display that heralded full brass effects and more urgent energy. Offbeat rhythm stirred renewed whimsy in the solo with a nostalgic air, as if a long-remembered friend just spoke in a crowded room.

Fanfares across the stage flagged another transition, echoed in piano in galloping, garrulous phrases building to a climax; the same old friend finding full voice in a thundering conclusion and rapturous applause.

After more than 29,000 notes, there could no encore.

Richard Strauss’s Ein Heldenleben (A Hero’s Life) followed the interval, a ribald account again quoting the composer’s other works but in more flagrant form.

Stentorian lower strings proclaimed the hero, flowing to violins with brass reinforcement; typically Strauss as nine horns summoned a grandiose sweeping arc and a huge ensemble delivered a larger-than-life climax.

The Hero’s Enemies arrived in a cacophony of woodwind with trombone support and a swirling hotch-potch of mystery conjured by strings. Strauss’s real enemies, the critics, twittered time and again in woodwind and bombastic brass.

Concertmaster Laurence Jackson broached the mellifluous voice of The Hero’s Companion, a pin-drop moment that summoned rumbling brass and loyal support in strings. Mercurial as ever, Jackson held the room on the tips of his fingers, by turns richly lyrical and ethereally evanescent in a timely reminder of the wealth of talent resident at the Concert Hall.

Heroics renewed as the ensemble exploded into life, the soundscape rising and falling as symphonic and cinematic vistas converged, clarinet (Allan Meyer) and horn (David Evans) chiming in dutifully to temper the mix.

Offstage trumpets led in a new attack, with high drama in rasping lower brass and solo trumpet (Jenna Smith) over menacing percussion calling up philharmonic might, with Fisch the field marshal at its centre.

From war to peace, a broad phalanx of horns testified to glorious deeds; familiar lines rolling out in a miasma of all things Strauss, with highlights in harp (William Nichols and Kate Moloney).

Finally, funeral beats led in more harp and emotive bassoon (Jane Kircher-Lindner), echoed across woodwind and violin; lush strings filling out the palette in a mellow Romantic wallow.

Low brass and timpani broke in abruptly to broach a solemn finale; cor anglais (Jonathan Ryan) carolling over shimmering strings.

Horns summoned fateful reflection in violins giving way to an angst-laden motif in brass, resolving to solo violin and horns, with trumpets calling in one last glorious afterglow.

WASO repeats the program on Saturday and returns to the Concert Hall on March 15 and 16 for Dvorak’s Cello Concerto, all at 7.30pm.

WASO also announced that its whole 2024 classical season will be delivered at the Concert Hall, including the Mozart and Brahms spring festival, as renovations have been rescheduled to start next year.