Perth Festival of the Arts finale full of all the right ingredients

Putting the right ingredients into the final concert of any festival is a tricky one. You’ve got to get the right artists and put together a programme that sets the seal on a successful series of concerts. Those at Perth Festival of the Arts got it spot on.

The formula of overture, concerto and symphony isn’t a new concept, but Saturday’s line-up in Perth’s Concert Hall was that bit special.

A relatively unknown overture, one of the best performances of a Bruch concerto I’ve ever heard and a Shostakovich symphony that was a mood-swinging, tension-totenderness rollercoaster of emotions and which had the senses soaring.

Yet there was one minor problem. After the exciting turmoil of the symphony, was there any need for an encore? And if so, why choose Mascagni’s Intermezzo from Cavaleria Rusticana?

We should have been left with smouldering aftermath of Shostakovich, not an enchanting excerpt of Italian opera.

Encores are hit or miss but Jennifer Pike’s after the Bruch worked a treat, a delightful Polish folk tune.

This simply continued her beautifully relaxed and technically perfect display which emanated throughout the Bruch G minor concerto. It’s not the longest concerto in the repertoire but Pike’s attention to detail made every little note count with a performance which was the essence of all-round excellence.

The Dresden Philharmonic had set their stall out early on in the Weber Euryanthe overture but they raised the bar considerably with the Shostakovich.

The build-up at the start of the first movement was splendid, the angst and tension of the third totally palpable and the fireworks at the end had five stars stamped all over it. Absolutely brilliant!