The Adelaide Symphony Orchestra began its Town Hall performance of Our Don: A Symphonic Tribute to Sir Donald Bradman by playing Peter Sculthorpe’s “Small Town” – an appropriate tribute to another great Australian who passed away recently.
“Small Town” evokes the feeling of a gentle, slow rural setting until interrupted by military musical themes indicating the coming of war and its impact on the town. The ASO played this piece brilliantly.
Graham Koehne’s “Shaker Dances: Square order shuffle” was also played energetically and created such a lively sense of barn dancing that conductor Luke Dollman almost danced off his podium.
The audience was then treated to a superb performance by Greta Bradman, granddaughter of Sir Don, who sang “Three Songs for Soprano and Orchestra” by Osvaldo Golijov. The singer’s rich and melodious voice blended beautifully with the orchestra and there were times when it resonated throughout the magnificent Adelaide Town Hall, which was a wonderful venue for this concert.
Bradman sustained moments of great quality and in her higher register she found a delicacy and lightness that was a delight to hear. No wonder she was presented with the Australian International Opera Award, 2013.
The symphony, composed by Australian Natalie Williams, is divided into five movements, chronologically recording his development from being a young, enthusiastic “Boy from Bowral” through until he was regarded as a national hero. It was conceived as a multi-media work, so images, text and video footage accompany the music on a large screen.
Williams’ music is beautiful, and it ranges from the lyrical and pastoral settings of the cricketer’s youth through to the intensity and animosity of the infamous “Bodyline” series. Don Bradman, who was something of a songwriter himself, would have been very proud to have Williams’ music commemorating his life. Breaking up the cricketing stories and images is the romantic music dedicated to Bradman’s lifelong relationship with his wife, Jesse.
Actor Gary Sweet, who played Don Bradman in the TV mini-series Bodyline, read with sincerity and appreciation the text that accompanies the orchestra. However, the reading was essentially invasive and prevented a true enjoyment of the music. More care should have been taken to ensure the visual images aligned with the chronology of the music and, similarly, the spoken text was often at odds with the visual and textual information on the screen. When video footage of batsmen being hit in the Bodyline series was accompanied by the intense orchestration, it was quite powerful, but when the audience was looking at him being a young captain but hearing about him later in life, we weren’t sure where to focus.
Nonetheless, the audience still thoroughly enjoyed the evening because of the excellent performances and the nostalgia associated with Don Bradman.
Our Don would be a much better performance if the screen images more closely related to the music and the appropriate period of Bradman’s life, and if any text was markedly reduced and limited to being on screen, thus avoiding an actor’s voice competing with an orchestra. Natalie Williams’ score was a joy to listen to and I would love to be able to hear it uninterrupted.
Our Don: A Symphonic Tribute to Sir Donald Bradman AC was a one-off performance by the Adelaide Symphony Orchestra at the Adelaide Town Hall.
