Conductor Nathan Aspinall
Host Guy Noble
Kodály Dances of Galánta
Wagner Dawn and Siegfried’s Rhine Journey from Götterdämmerung
Bartók Romanian Folk Dances
Dvořák Symphony No.9, Mvt 2 Largo
Wood Fantasy on British Sea Songs
Grainger Irish Tune from County Derry (Londonderry Air)
Smetana Blaník from Má Vlast
The QSO left the audience’s clapping behind with frenetic bowing and several broken strings!
The 2019 season of the extremely popular Music on Sundays opened to a packed house, delivering a delightful traditional folk weekend interlude for all ages.
It was a musical World journey displaying folk tunes from Hungary, Romanian, Czechoslovakia, Germany, England, Ireland and USA. The irrepressible host Guy Noble opened the concert dressed in lycra bike pants and top stretched over a beer gut to represent the national dress of Australia! Nathan Aspinall, the dapper Brisbane born conductor, who is currently the Associate Conductor of the Jacksonville Symphony Orchestra in Florida, was happy to take the helm and conduct his hometown Queensland Symphony Orchestra.
The classical music was by composers who were inspired by their countries’ folk and gypsy traditions. Most focused on one particular instrument, to create the “sound” of their country, testing many instrumental soloists from the QSO. Zoltan Kodály’s Dances of Galanta featured some fiendish solos from Brian Catchlove on clarinet, with the Gypsy dance music from the 1800’s from Galánta on the border of Austria and Hungary as the inspiration. The rhythm and sound was varied, with large crescendos and big band styled parts combined with soft, complicated clarinet solos in verbunkos style: music which lured men to recruit for the army.
Two exciting excerpts from Wagner’s Ring Cycle of operas were played, inspired by Norse and German mythology in Dawn and Twilight of the Gods, which took 25 years to create! Wagner also revolutionised concert performances by designing his own concert hall and placing the orchestra below the stage, allowing them to play loud, but not drown out the singers on stage. One QSO orchestral member, the French horn player Mal Stewart, left the stage in true Wagnerian dramatic style to perform his longing solo off-stage and give the illusion of a distant call.
Six short Romanian Folk Dances arranged by Bartók followed, based on his live phonograph field recordings. Each bounced along with contrasting harmonies, and there was a lovely solo on the piccolo from Stephanie Vici. The slow but evocative solo of the Cor Anglais by Vivienne Brooke was the highlight of Dvořák’s New World Symphony, inspired by the African American slave songs.
The rousing Irish music of Australian born Percy Grainger with Londonderry Air, more popularly known as Danny Boy, created a tear in the eye of many of the Irish. It is the most commonly played music at Irish funerals, usually accompanied by drunken mournful crooners at the wake. Fortunately, we had the QSO string section pull it off without a whisky in sight!
The Sea Shanties of Wood had the audience clapping along and bouncing in their seats with a technical cello solo from Matthew Kinmont, the Acting Section Principal Cello. My Country, Ma Vlast by Smetana, rounded off the QSO’s first 2019 lunchtime performance, a piece not popular with the orchestra themselves, Guy revealed, but a hit with the audience nonetheless. The enthusiastic applause was rewarded with a lightning-fast rendition of the Wood’s Sailor’s Hornpipe, which is a traditional feature of the Last Night of the Proms. The talented QSO left the audience’s clapping behind with frenetic bowing and several broken strings!
Festival of Folk was an enjoyable Sunday lunchtime concert from the Queensland Symphony Orchestra, celebrating national identity with dances, sea songs, and rhapsodies from around the World.
March 10, 2019
Concert Hall, QPAC
Dr Gemma Regan