Queensland Symphony Orchestra opened their 2023 season, and their new Up Close series, with Joy and Sorrow at the QSO Studio in South Bank. This intimate chamber concert also marked the first public performance of QSO Chief Conductor Umberto Clerici, who handpicked the programme featuring pieces by Stravinsky, Strauss, and the world premiere of a new composition by QSO’s Section Principal Percussion David Montgomery.
QSO Up Close is designed to celebrate music written for chamber orchestra, performed in the orchestra’s home studio. The intimate setting lends itself to a closer connection with the music and musicians, and it is easier to see the dynamics at work in a piece at such close proximity. Chief Conductor Clerici was a personable presence onstage, speaking to the audience and the musicians between pieces, and an expressive conductor, moving with sure and fluid gestures.
The concert opened with Richard Strauss’ Metamorphosen for 23 solo strings, led by co-Concertmaster Natsuko Yoshimoto and with only the strings musicians onstage. Sweeping but sombre, the piece was composed for 23 solo strings, not for a strings section, and as such each instrument – 10 violins, 5 violas, 5 cellos, and 3 double basses – played an individual role. An elegy to the destruction of culture during World War II, including many opera houses across Germany where Strauss had built his career, the music swelled in intensity, instruments competing and overlapping before all coming together again, and receding. The mournful music carried me like a tide, and when the last notes finally drew out into silence and the musicians lowered their bows, I realised I had been holding my breath.
In direct contrast to the first, the second piece for Joy and Sorrow was performed only by brass and percussion musicians. Commissioned by the Queensland Symphony Orchestra, David Montgomery’s new composition Tenebrae and Passacaglia for Brass and Percussion featured solos for trumpet, horn, trombone, timpani, and percussion. The distributed arrangement of the musicians onstage also clearly showcased each section and musician.
Inspired by cycles and devotional practices, Montgomery’s piece followed the path of a day. Divided into seven sections – Tenebrae – Strepitus, Chant, Dawn, Midday, Dusk, Evening Fanfare, and Night Descends – the overall piece was bold, bright, modern, and playful. Multiphonics created a chant-like effect in the second section, and the brass and percussion musicians brought forth a colour, nuance, and theatricality that can be more difficult to discern from those sections under the full weight of an orchestra. Once the piece was concluded and the applause had died down, Clerici and Montgomery spoke about the work and Montgomery answered a few questions from the audience. Clerici emphasised the importance of commissioning new works, and in doing so contributing to the survival of classical music.
Joy and Sorrow concluded with Igor Stravinsky’s Pulcinella Suite, led by co-Concertmaster Warwick Adeney in one of his final performances with the Queensland Symphony Orchestra. Pulcinella – perhaps more recognisable to modern audiences as ‘Punch’ from Punch and Judy – is a classical character that originated in commedia dell’arte of the 17th century, and is represented in Stravinsky’s neoclassical ballet, commissioned by the Ballets Russes, as cheeky and flirtatious. The Pulcinella Suite consists of nine short movements, from a jaunty and cheerful introduction through moodier movements, shifts in speed and energy, and moments of drama and comedy building up to a jovial finish.
Queensland Symphony Orchestra’s Joy and Sorrow was a moving concert that transported the audience across a wide emotional landscape, as well as allowing them to observe and experience the shifting dynamics of the orchestra and the music more closely in such an intimate setting.
Joy and Sorrow was performed at the QSO Studio on 10 February 2023.
Joy and Sorrow was recorded by ABC and you can listen to the broadcast here
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