Maestro 2
An American in Paris
Queensland Symphony Orchestra
conducted by Johannes Fritzsch
QPAC Concert Hall
SOUTH BANK
Saturday 5 March
Gershwin An American in Paris
Gulda Concerto for Cello & Wind Orchestra
Prokofiev Symphony No 5 in B flat
NOW for something completely different - as the Monty Python gang used to say: The Concerto for Cello & Wind Orchestra by Friedrich Gulda.
I have never experienced anything quite like it and neither, I suspect, had most of the regular concertgoers, but the entire audience embraced this eccentric modern piece with great enthusiasm and soloist, Mats Rondin, won hearts everywhere with his brilliant playing and an acute sense of humour.
I mean, how many soloists have you seen encouraging the audience to whistle along to a suddenly introduced Waltzing Matilda during a movement called Cadenza or to clap along with the rhythm? Rondin did this as well doing a lot of music hall mugging as he coaxed tiny top notes from his 1772 Gagliano ‘cello.
He entered carrying his classic string instrument and then handed his bow over to conductor, Johannes Fritzsch, and promptly exited waving to the audience. He re-entered with a space-age electric ‘cello and calmly connected it to an amplifier. He twiddled a few knobs struck his now across the strings and was happy with the booming notes that emerged.
Then he proceeded to swing away with a string bass behind him, an electric bass in the first strings deck and with a white tie and tailed musician playing a jazz drum kit.
It was a little bizarre, but it was also great music and fun that emerged from the section. So, he switched from acoustic to electric and back throughout the concerto.
Then we had an amazing Souza-like march to end the concerto with resounding tuba from Thomas Allely who revelled in his solos plus saxophones and the rest of the big band brass to rev up the tempo
There was no disguising the delight of the audience to this amazing performance.
Mind you, the opening work on the program, George Gershwin’s An American in Paris really set the tone for the evening. This serious composition from one of America’s greatest pop song-writers is a delightful piece of music, filled with the sounds and sights experience by a young American on his first visit to the French capital - right down to car horns, which were played with great enthusiasm by a widely grinning percussionist Nozomi Omote.
It is jazz and blues oriented composition which fits the big orchestra beautifully, with lots of swinging brass and blues chords swelling through. I have to mention the sweet blues trumpet playing of acting trumpet Principal Sarah Wilson. She’d give Wynton Marsalis a run for his money.
The finale was a complete contrast: big, serious, and loud - Symphony No 5 in B flat by Prokofiev.
I have to confess that this was the first time I had heard a Prokofiev symphony. I have been exposed to his piano concertos in the main and it was in the basis my extreme enjoyment and wonder at the technical brilliance and vibrancy of the concertos that tempted me to the symphony.
And I was not disappointed. The orchestra was in fine form and Johannes Fritzsch has a marvellous understanding of the composer’s work.
The four movements were filled with dark and powerful percussion, searing brass and subtle passages on woodwinds, particularly flute and bassoon at one time when a simple theme floats in the air and is slowly taken over by the full might of the orchestra.
And does the composer like to make the string sections work hard!
What I love about Prokofiev is the way he builds to such fantastic crescendos. Not one movement in this triumphant symphony ends in a whimper!
There is such an inexorable build-up and then the sudden stop that it’s like climbing a mountain and then falling of the cliff edge. The music has such power.
This was my first concert in a year when Fifth Symphonies will dominate with the Queensland Symphony Orchestra.
After this experience I can’t wait for the next one. I have a feeling that it is going to be a big year for the Orchestra.
Eric Scott
