MUSIC
Australian Octet: Shostakovich, Raff & Brahms ★★★½
Melbourne Recital Centre, March 31

While not explicitly linked, a subtle thread seemed to connect the three contrasting pieces presented by this flagship ensemble of the Melbourne Chamber Orchestra. Each work represented an artist’s response to an enduring creative conundrum: is it better to be a conformist or an innovator?

Shostakovich’s Two Pieces for String Octet, completed in 1925 when the composer was just 19, is a telling example of how conflicting this question can be. While the prelude exists in a rich hinterland between impressionism and neoclassicism, the scherzo hurtles headlong into a vortex of wild atonality.

Such brutal dissonance was considered an expression of Western decadence in Shostakovich’s native Soviet Union, so this defiant work was as much an act of political protest as it was artistic rebellion.

By contrast, Joachim Raff’s Octet in C Major is unashamedly crowd-pleasing. While relatively successful in his day, Raff has largely slipped into obscurity, and given the rather unmemorable, albeit pleasant, quality of this piece, that’s hardly surprising – especially when one considers Brahms’ perennially popular Sextet No.2 predates Raff’s inferior efforts by some seven years.

Brahms' brilliantly conceived yet enigmatic work not only inhabits the liminal space between conformity and innovation, it also traces the dualities of melancholy and joy, effortless simplicity and rhapsodic exuberance.

The Australian Octet’s robust if not totally immaculate performance was a fine demonstration of the calibre of its musicians. At times, however, some more intimate communication and restraint might have tempered the ensemble’s hefty tone with moments of definition and delicacy.