Sydney Symphony Orchestra, Romantic Visions review: Peter Serkin's deft work
By Peter McCallum
The Sydney Morning Herald

Peter Serkin's​ hands vibrated with quiet intensity as he grounded each chord in the slow movement of Bartok's Third Piano Concerto, as though to enrich the resonance of each carefully graded step.

In one sense such sensitivity is illusory since, by the time the key reaches its bed, the sound has escaped and cannot be altered. In his case the gesture was emblematic of an immaculate musical conception which guided the shape of musical lines and the structure of the whole work through its simple clarity of idea.

The light theme played in unison which begins the first movement rang out with bright freshness over an underlay of quietly energised strings. Serkin's playing avoided heaviness in favour of such colour, infused always with the intimacy of chamber music. After the hymn-like chords of the slow movement the music gives way to Bartok's favourite nocturnal texture – the buzzing and sudden shrieks of night creatures. As the hymn returns on cor anglais, Serkin's decorative filigree  was still, luminous and revelatory.

The finale bounded out of this quiet moment with energised vigour, and each return of the main theme culminated in pianistic cascades down to the bass register before passing the last word to emphatic hammered timpani strokes. Bartok leads the music through playful fugues and richly coloured episodes on woodwind and brass, which Serkin guided with powerful musical concentration, concluding a rising flourish as fresh as the opening. It was a performance of delightful deftness, quick intelligence and mastery.

In Wagner's Siegfried  Idyll, which opened the program, conductor Matthias Pintscher​ resisted any temptation to hurry or push forward, allowing each orchestral player's sound to unfold and find its natural tone like morning sun creeping over streams and fields, the ending dissolving like morning dew.

Arnold Schoenberg​ claimed that he arranged Brahms' Piano Quartet G minor Opus 25 because he liked it, it was seldom played, and was always played badly. The latter two reasons are not valid in contemporary Sydney, but hearing Schoenberg​ colour this serious and intimate work of chamber music with imaginative, sometimes outrageously romantic colours was nevertheless a treat, particularly in the wind delicacy of the second movement, full string sound of the third, and the fiery finale.