Marcus Teague and Tony Way
MUSIC
Lorde | Ultrasound World Tour ★★★★
Rod Laver Arena, Saturday, February 21
At 29 years old, Lorde is already in the history books. Her 2013 debut LP, Pure Heroine – released when she was only 16 – wasn’t just a global smash, but reset the template of pop, with its minimalist, journalistic anthems influencing a generation of stars in Billie Eilish, Charli XCX, Gracie Abrams and more. Thirteen years and three albums later, Lorde – aka Ella Yelich-O’Connor – is now both a veteran and still figuring it out.
Her new LP, Virgin, is a break-up record, littered with the physicality of grief and forced metamorphosis.
That raw streak is mirrored in Saturday’s surprisingly DIY staging – discarded clothes are left where they fall, her crew walk around filming with handheld cameras, and two dancers wander between her band half-submerged in the stage. It’s all slightly ragged – like they’re setting up for an arena show, rather than delivering it – but you suspect that’s the point: Lorde is letting us in on her rebuild.
An icy laser scythes the floor, and Lorde pops up for opening track, Hammer. In baggy jeans (“I found these at my grandfather’s house”) and a red T-shirt, she mirrors the gender-fluid streak announced in the song’s lyric, “Some days I’m a woman, some days I’m a man”.
The first half booms with anthemic new tracks from Virgin, segueing with Pure Heroine classics that have the crowd in raptures. Lorde works through props – singing artfully into a fan, climbing a speaker stack, lying on a treadmill – while disrobing to underwear and the taped-down breasts look of her Man of the Year single (and adopted by many in the crowd tonight). “It’s great to be back in one of my favourite cities,” she says. “I feel like I met half the show at Hope St Radio last night,” a nod to Collingwood’s bougie wine bar hangout.
The set sags during tracks from 2021’s tepid Solar Power, then roars back to life on mass singalong Liability and a home stretch that culminates in a rave for What Was That and Green Light. Pushing through the crowd during tearjerker David, Lorde climbs onto a small stage at the mixing desk and brings it home with a euphoric Ribs from the centre of the stadium.
Lorde’s strength is being so willing to work her feelings out in public. If she remains so articulate about it, who knows – her best work might still just be ahead of her.
Reviewed by Marcus Teague
MUSIC
Chinese New Year | 中国新年音乐会 ★★★★
Melbourne Symphony Orchestra,
Hamer Hall, Saturday, February 21
Energy, boldness and resilience, some of the qualities associated with the Year of the Horse, were well reflected in this year’s Chinese New Year celebration by the Melbourne Symphony Orchestra.
Wang Xilin’s rollicking Torch Festival from his Yunnan Tone Poem struck a joyous, festive note that was neatly contrasted by Chen Gang and He Zhanhao’s classic concerto The Butterfly Lovers. Originally conceived for violin and orchestra, this performance featured Melbourne-based guzheng (Chinese zither) exponent Mindy Meng Wang as an evocative musical storyteller. This rebalancing of Chinese and Western elements enhanced the musical tale of star-crossed lovers.
American-born Zlatomir Fung gave a subtle and deeply lyrical account of Saint-Saëns′ Cello Concerto No.1, bringing abundant colour and character to this well-known score. Technically assured and expressively articulate, Fung found added reserves of passion for the tumultuous finale. Considering the size of Hamer Hall, these could have been even more boldly deployed.
Given that the MSO has been regularly performing Beethoven’s Symphony No.7 over the past five years, any fears that the players would set themselves on autopilot were soon allayed, as conductor Li Biao established an intense synergy with the orchestra that drew out some finely honed dynamics and striking contrasts.
Orchestra and conductor clearly relished the collaboration, spinning spacious melodic arcs in the second movement and ratcheting up the rhythmic tension in the scherzo. The exhilarating finale could well have been likened to a thoroughbred straining to reach the finishing post at Flemington.
Equine analogies were not over yet. After a Gershwin-infused encore – Joyous Festival by Chinese Australian composer Wang-Hua Chu – came the famous final gallop of the William Tell overture, complete with an outrageous brass whinny interpolated just before the end. It seems as though the Year of the Horse also comes with a playful sense of humour.
Reviewed by Tony Way
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