Queensland Symphony Orchestra presents Violin Virtuoso - Soloist Fireworks
28-29th June 2024
Concert Hall, QPAC
Violin Virtuoso delights and excites Brisbane audiences as they rug up for the Winter season
Queensland Symphony Orchestra has prepared a real treat for Brisbane audiences with Violin Virtuoso - Soloist Fireworks. Attendees will be getting their full value out of the performance with a generous and carefully crafted program that has dimension, with a range of musical styles and techniques explored. Not to be missed Soloist Francesa Dego, demonstrates her proficiency on the violin, which is accompanied by her stage presence and impeccable dress sense.
Audiences will be engaged from start to finish, as they sit down for a 2 hour performance where they are given the opportunity to experience firsthand everything from the tortured angst of Austrian composer Arnold Schoenberg and his piece Begleitungsmusik zu einer Lichtspielscene,, Op.34 to the intricate melodies of highly experienced Finnish composer Jean Sibelius, and his composition Violin Concerto in D minor, to the artistry and sheer mastery of Soloist Francesa Dego, violin.
Schoenberg kicks off the performance with a memorable and somewhat unsettling composition Begleitungsmusik zu einer Lichtspielscene,, Op.34 which can be translated to “Accompaniment to a Film Scene”. This piece which features the following subtitles “Threatening Danger, Fear, Catastrophe” allows the audience to insert their own narrative in terms of the corresponding themes, and potentially draw elements of their own personal life into the equation, i.e. a domestic dispute. Schoenberg’s Begleitungsmusik zu einer Lichtspielscene,, Op.34 is oddly reminiscent of a film score, although his views on the film industry were abhorrent, he demonstrated a high degree of potential in this field, in some ways ahead of his time with his various methodologies.
Sibelius’s work which is notably different to Schoenberg’s, although doesn’t feel out of place in the overarching narrative of the performance, nods to folk influence, allowing for a bit of flair from both Dego and the accompanying orchestra. The work has three movements (fast, slow, fast) which sits nicely adjacent Schoenberg’s earlier piece Begleitungsmusik zu einer Lichtspielscene,, Op.34, before the orchestral arrangements change shape and Brahms’s melodies take center stage with Piano Quartet No.1 in G minor arranged for orchestra by Schoenberg which features a “call and response” musical pattern heard between chamber players. The compositions featured within Violin Virtuoso are effortlessly intertwined, although these pieces had come to fruition centuries ago, Conductor Asher Fisch breathes life into these works and gives each piece new meaning in this immersive Queensland Symphony Orchestra performance.
Soloist Dego, put simply is a class act and could not be better suited to spotlight Violin Virtuoso - Soloist Fireworks. Dego is a force to be reckoned with, as she wields her instrument of choice, the violin, like a weapon - effortlessly sliding up and down the fingerboard with ease, using her upper body to support the weight of the instrument on her shoulders. Violin Virtuoso as a whole blends seamlessly together, due to the expertly crafted program that uses the contrast of silence and sound, the light and the dark elements musically produced by the Queensland Symphony Orchestra, to leave a lasting impression on the audience, even long after they have left the QPAC theater.
Fortunately for those who did not have the pleasure of attending the performance can relive this concert on ABC Classic 19 July at 1pm AEST.
Imagery & Review: Joanna Letic