Conductor Johannes Fritzsch
Piano Soloist Piers Lane
Mozart Piano Concerto No.23 in A, K488
Bruckner Symphony No.7
Less than a week after the flags and streamers were waving for Queensland Symphony Orchestra’s spectacular Last Night of the Proms, the QSO completed the week with an epic soundscape in The Cathedral of Sound. The Friday Morning Masterworks concert was packed with QSO subscribers, fans and school groups, all eager to be whisked away to other realms with the delightful music of Bruckner and Mozart.
The piano soloist for Mozart’s Piano Concerto No.23 was the Australian Piers Lane, the Artistic Director of the Sydney International Piano Competition of Australia. An old hand, he has played five times as a piano soloist at the BBC Proms and has a concert repertoire of over ninety works. He is also a regular performer with the QSO and has been performing for forty years, with one of the audience members having seen him perform at the QPAC in his inaugural year!
Mozart’s Piano Concerto No.23 is one of his most treasured works. Written in 1786 in the joyous key of A major, it gives the piece a happy and pleasing sound which brightens the soul. The three movements all highlight the woodwind section, especially Mozart’s favourite, the clarinet, although there is an unusual omission of the oboe from the concerto. Piers was hunched over the piano, revealing his many years at the keyboard as his fingers flowed up and down the registers, mimicking the flow of the beautiful Allegro cadenza. The reflective, quiet piano solo at the beginning blossomed with the woodwind and was full of chromatic inflections and dissonances. The Adagio, a sombre second movement, contrasted sharply with the sparkling energy of the first and third movements. The Allegro Assai was typical Mozart with flowing themes finishing with a flurry of fingers.
Maestro Johannes Fritzsch was energetically bouncing on his toes whilst conducting Bruckner’s Symphony No. 7. With a full orchestra including eight double basses lined up along the back, his seemingly boundless energy was needed to keep the pace. It was Bruckner’s Seventh Symphony that finally elevated his fame as a composer, rather than being known solely as one of the best organists of the time. Bruckner idolised Wagner, dedicating his Third Symphony to him as the “Master of all Masters.” Whilst composing the Seventh Symphony, Bruckner became overwhelmed with the premonition that Wagner was about to die and instantly heard the C sharp minor theme which he used in the Adagio. When Wagner died, he further developed the Finale with the coda using peeling Wagnerian horn calls to salute the master in tribute. The four rare Wagner tubas played by the QSO, are a brass instrument that combines the french horn and the tuba. They were originally created for Wagner’s Ring Cycle series and were a highlight of this concert with their mellow almost distant sound and striking appearance.
When it premiered at the Leipzig Gewandhaus in 1884, the applause lasted for 15 minutes and it was declared “the most significant symphonic work since 1827!” by Wagner’s conductor Hermann Levi. However, some of his colleagues did not agree with Max Kalbeck, stating that “it comes from the Nibelungen (Scandinavian dwarves) and goes to the devil!” Despite the Seventh Symphony being written about heaven, it often sounds as if it were inspired by being chased through the gates of hell by Hades. Bruckner creates contrasting worlds through his energetic scherzos, interspersed with fairy-like melodies to finally end with striking strings and a peeling brass in a spectacular and moving elegy to Wagner. Fortunately, the Queensland Symphony Orchestra transported the audience to the heavenly realms with two beautifully contrasting soundscapes in the Cathedral of Sound concert in a great testament to Bruckner and Mozart.
10th-11th May, 2019
Concert Hall, QPAC
Dr Gemma Regan