MUSIC
HOT SUMMER NIGHT! ★★★★
Melbourne Symphony Orchestra
Sidney Myer Music Bowl
​February 10

This free concert, second in the annual series of three, was pretty mild – both musically and atmospherically. It was nothing like Wednesday's opening event, when a searing temperature ensured debilitating working conditions for conductor Antony Hermus and the MSO in producing an unexpectedly vital reading of Tchaikovsky's Symphony No. 4, while Sophie Rowell fronted a richly-coloured Bruch G minor Violin Concerto.

Saturday proved much less oppressive, offering a more-varied diet than the first night's overture-concerto-symphony staple format. It opened with a staid reading of Ravel's Alborada del gracioso and finished with the same composer's perennial crowd-pleaser, Bolero, taken at a measured, breath-draining pace for all wind soloists.

On a program that was heavily Hispanic-flavoured, Hermus also took his forces through the Danzon No. 2 by Mexican composer Arturo Marquez – a rousing performance that amiably treated a plethora of Latin dance tropes, packed with colour and as unpretentious as a Piazzolla tango.

Mezzo Luciana Mancini gave extra interest to Falla's El amor brujo ballet, singing the work's three brief songs with an earthy cante flamenco force that significantly enriched the work's well-spiced orchestral content.

Later, the singer made an even finer showing in Berio's Folk Songs: an extraordinarily challenging offering at a big open-air event. Beginning with a radiant account of Black is the colour of my true love's hair, Mancini moved through the 11-part cycle with an eloquent production and a keen ear for the composer/arranger's subtleties of inflection – a splendid accomplishment from an insightful singer and her involved orchestral ensemble.