Review: Sydney Morning Herald, Sydney Symphony Orchestra/ Ashkenazy/ Sydney Opera House

Beethoven HeroicSydney Symphony, Sydney Opera House, October 12★★★★The next generation of performers were on prominent display this week, first in Jayson Gillham's lyrically restrained performance of Beethoven's Fourth Piano Concerto with conductor, Vladimir Ashkenazy, and the SSO and then with the uncannily accomplished Beilman and Tyson violin and piano duo from Musica Viva.Gillham's playing is smooth, clear and polished and in the first movement he focused on the melodic line and legato playing to produce a dreamy, though occasionally undynamic effect.In the great slow movement, which so memorably balances darkness and eloquence, Gillham was classically controlled, while the finale was brilliantly articulated and buoyant.After interval, in Beethoven's Symphony No. 3 in E flat, Opus 55, Ashkenazy led the orchestra in one of those performances that seem to reveal an inner truth, with tempi that were deeply convincing and where points of tension and emphasis were matched so naturally to the overall arc that the work's great expressive purpose seemed revealed.