Queensland Symphony Orchestra was joined by guest soprano Sara Macliver, The Australian Voices, and trailblazing South Korean conductor Shiyeon Sung for this concert, showcasing works by Wagner and Golijov alongside Gustav Holst’s celestial suite The Planets.
The concert began with Richard Wagner’s overture to his opera Tannhäuser, a three-act opera that pits love against lust with a love triangle, a song contest and, ultimately, the redemption of the titular character’s sins. Tannhäuser, a travelling poet, spends a year in the underworld with Venus before leaving to pursue a more righteous path, and becoming involved in the legendary Wartburg Song Contest.
The overture began slowly and dreamily, with tension rising in the strings before softening again. There was a bright burst of brass, then the music expanded as the violins rose and rose. Even as the volume quietened the tension did not release, swooping up and down. There was a crash of handheld percussion and the piece came to a glorious finish, the kind of music that you feel in the body. Queensland Symphony Orchestra performed the original, Dresden version which is usually performed at concerts where the overture is played as a standalone piece of music; in the operatic, Paris version the overture leads directly into the first scene without pause.
The second piece was Argentinian composer Osvaldo Golijov’s Three Songs for Soprano and Orchestra, featuring guest soloist soprano Sara Macliver singing in Yiddish and a regional language of Spain. The suite was originally written for American soprano Dawn Upshaw, and Macliver reminisced in her programme note that she was once an understudy for Upshaw for performances of these three songs with the Australian Chamber Orchestra.
The first song, Night of the Flying Horses, was eerie and uneasy, beginning with only the mournful and emotive voice of the soprano. When the orchestra did enter the piece, it was with the palpable tension of the bass clarinet, continuing to the first violin before picking up speed. Lúa Descolorida, a lament to the moon, and How Slow the Wind, which combines two Emily Dickinson poems as a musical dedication to a departed friend, were performed with equal sincerity by Macliver.
The titular piece of this QSO concert, The Planets, is a seven-movement orchestral suite composed by English composer Gustav Holst. Each movement is named after a planet in our solar system, excluding Earth (and Pluto, which was not discovered until almost 15 years after the work premiered). Composed over almost three years between 1914 and 1917, The Planets premiered at Queen’s Hall in London in 1918. Although it initially received a mixed critical reception, the suite became and has remained popular, with over 80 commercial recordings made and numerous pop culture moments and film scores inspired – even my untrained ears could hear the influence of Holst’s work on John Williams’ now-iconic Star Wars scores.
The stage was very full for this final piece of music, and guest conductor Shiyeon Sung was sharp and deft. Conducting with quick, high movements, she was engaging to watch, especially her subtle gestures in the quiet moments. Sung was the first South Korean conductor to take the podium of internationally renowned orchestras including the Konzerthaus Orchestra Berlin and Los Angeles Philharmonic, and has performed with an ever-growing list of international orchestras over the past two decades.
Each of the seven movements in The Planets is named for a planet and developed around the perceived astrological traits of that planet. The suite opened with Mars, the Bringer of War, a violent and restless movement that brought the full force of the orchestra to its grand march, and then abruptly switched pace for the second movement, Venus, the Bringer of Peace, to a gentle feeling of hope and healing, and the pleasant lightness of feeling infinitely small. The third movement, Mercury, the Winged Messenger, was playful and lively, with notes leaping from one instrument to the next before settling into a cheerful theme.
Jupiter, the Bringer of Jollity, is the most famous movement of the suite and an excerpt from it became the British patriotic hymn I Vow to Thee, My Country in the early 1920s. The orchestra crashed back into the vigorous energy from earlier in the suite, and Jupiter was exhilarating from start to finish. Saturn, the Bringer of Old Age, brought another sudden change of pace, with an underlying rhythm that suggested the passage of time and a gentle, eventual fade into oblivion.
Uranus, the Magician climbed up and down, reminiscent of an 80s sci-fi soundtrack, and the final movement, Neptune, the Mystic, was a sparkling slow burn that felt similarly familiar from deep space moments in film. The otherworldly voices of this last movement, a wordless chorus performed by the Australian Voices from offstage, raised goosebumps on my arms, a siren call from the unknown.
One of the things I love about Queensland Symphony Orchestra’s concerts is the opportunity to hear music I haven’t encountered before, and to be guided through it by the musicians and conductor (as well as the very helpful programme guide). I thoroughly enjoyed The Planets, especially the orchestral suite for which the concert was named, each movement imbued with a distinct personality and the concert itself full of energy and character.
The Planets was performed at the QPAC Concert Hall from 14 – 15 April 2023.
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