Great Inventions presented by the Queensland Symphony Orchestra
Concert Hall, QPAC
25th July, 2021
Conductor Benjamin Bayl
Soloist Thomas Allely, Tuba
HAYDN Representation of Chaos from The Creation
HAYDN Symphony No.101 in D (The Clock), mvt 2
RAMEAU Dance Excepts from Platée
BEETHOVEN Symphony No.3 in E at, mvt 3
DEBUSSY Pagodes from Estampes
JONES Concerto for Tuba and Orchestra, mvt 3
GREENBAUM City lights, a mile up
RIMSKY-KORSAKOV' Capriccio espagnol, Op.34
Dr Gemma Regan
Highlighted the fabulous dexterity and adaptability of the Queensland Symphony Orchestra
Whilst nearly half of Australia was in lockdown, fortunate Queenslanders filled the Concert Hall of the QPAC for the ever-popular Music on Sundays series. As the lights dimmed the familiar voice of the incorrigible host Guy Noble accompanied by splashes introduced the QSO’s presentation of Great Inventions. However, we were only to hear his voice as he took a well-earned bath in Sydney due to the lengthy lockdown, perhaps as one of the great inventors Archimedes may have done. Noble did not leap from the bath shouting Eureka, as far a the audience knew, but instead amused the audience with his tales of the QSO who he claimed he had been working with since 1862!
With Noble busy with his ablutions the ever-versatile QSO musicians each took turns in introducing the musical pieces and even chatted with the visiting Australian born Conductor Benjamin Bayl. Bayl is the co-Founder and Guest Conductor of the Australian Romantic and Classical Orchestra and Associate Director of The Hanover Band and surprisingly he had managed to travel from Budapest where he resides.
The concert opened with two excerpts from Joseph Haydn’s 104 symphonies, Representation of Chaos from The Creation and Symphony No.101 in D (The Clock). His representation of chaos, based on the English libretto of The Creation was filled with strings and woodwind but seemed anything but chaotic to our crazy modern lifestyles. Coming from an era that valued order the changing themes must have then seemed disordered and disturbing, what would they have thought of modern jazz? The Clock was typical Haydn parlour music with a metered beat perhaps representing the tick of a clock on the mantelpiece as the ladies ‘took tea’ in the parlour. Cascading violins kept time whilst the woodwind tootled and hovered above until a fortissimo and key change altered the pattern as perhaps the clock faltered or chimed the hour.
Bayl introduced Rameau’s three Dance Excerpts from Platée as tricky to play but "fortunately, the QSO can play anything". All three differed in style telling a story of the God Jupiter marrying an ugly marsh nymph. He wrote the opera for the wedding of Prince Dauphin to a less than becoming Maria Teresa! The orchestra incorporated lively and bright tambourines transitioning to wobble boards and even an aeoliphone to make the whooshing wind sounds. The equally bright Scherzo from Beethoven’s Eroica followed featuring an unusual trio of French horns, then a loud boom amping up the volume to a rousing finish.
Double bass player Justin Bullock introduced the next part suggesting that he was embarking on a dangerous journey in passing through the viola section to the front of the stage. He then grabbed Bayl’s small baton and exclaimed that it was a COVID swab that was to be tested after the performance! Debussy’s mystical Pagodes from Estampes took the audience to Japan with a pentatonic melody where cymbals and harps mimicked the gamelan. It was beautiful and gentle drifting to an end like cherry blossoms on the wind.
The outstanding piece of the concert was the Largo from the Concerto for Tuba and Orchestra by Samuel Jones. The tuba is the most recent addition to an orchestra and has been described as a 'large wind tunnel’. The piece was inspired by the inventor of the wind tunnel James P. Crowder at Boeing and tuba player Thomas Allely described how the complicated patterning played by the tuba ‘sounds like the curlicues of air’. The frenetic piece was Wagnerian in delivery with phenomenal slides eerily up the scale whilst the tuba seems to buffet in the wind only to repeatedly fall with a mechanical clank until the next attempt. Finally, the music seems to harmonise as the wind experiment is tweaked to perfection for a triumphant finish.
Australian Greenbaum’s jazzy City Lights continued the aviation theme and the concert rounded off with five continuous movements from Rimsky-Korsakov in Capriccio Espagnol. It was a vibrant sound of Spain with whistles and tambourines and a lovely solo from Warwick Adeney on ‘the fiddle’ to finish off an eclectic concert. The music didn’t quite showcase great inventions but instead did highlight the fabulous dexterity and adaptability of the Queensland Symphony Orchestra.
Their next concert is on the 6th and 7th of August with Breathtaking Tchaikovsky with Conductor Johannes Fritzsch and Piers Lane on piano. The QSO are now offering $20 tickets for under 18s encouraging family attendance and if you are in a wheelchair or have access issues fear not. I attended in a wheelchair due to a broken leg and was looked after and accommodated by the lovely QPAC staff, so there is no excuse to take advantage of the amazing facilities and terrific talent here in Queensland!