Camerata – Queensland’s Chamber Orchestra and QPAC presented a thrilling and evocative concert of music by Mendelssohn and Rossini, Viva Violin, including an electric performance by guest soloist Catherina Lee and the premiere of a new work by Camerata’s 2023 Emerging Composer-in-Residence Ray Lin.
Camerata is a chamber orchestra that performs without a conductor, and this adds another facet to the audience experience, watching how the musicians communicate with each other and, in the case of this concert, with a soloist.
Viva Violin opened with Gioachino Rossini’s overture to his comedic opera The Barber of Seville, launching straight into the music without preamble. Fun and dramatic, Rossini’s energetic and rollicking overture was a high point to start on. This piece of music has featured in more than 11 cartoons since the 20th century, Camerata Artistic Director Brendan Joyce noted when the piece had concluded. Personally, I have distinct memories of the Looney Tunes rendition (The Rabbit of Seville) on my grandparents’ TV, in which a disguised Bugs Bunny gives Elmer Fudd a cut-throat shave (among other slapstick antics) to the recognisable theme.
Guest soloist Catherina Lee then joined Camerata onstage to perform Felix Mendelssohn’s Violin Concerto in E minor, which Joyce referred to as a pillar of the violin repertoire. Recently returned to Brisbane from Vienna, Lee trained extensively with Camerata founder Elizabeth Morgan AM, made her professional debut with Queensland Symphony Orchestra at the age of thirteen, and has gone on to perform with a number of European and Australian orchestras so far in her career.
Playing a GB Guadagnini violin crafted in Turin, Italy, in 1771, Lee delivered an electrifying performance, navigating the complexity of the concerto with precision and apparent ease. Her virtuosity and intensity of emotion made it difficult to look away from her performance.
With the holding of a single bassoon note, the piece transitioned from the intensity of the first movement to the slower, gentler second movement without pause, although Lee brought the same depth of feeling to the slower Andante. In the third and final movement, Allegro non troppo – allegro molto vivace, some of the speed and joy of the first movement returned and it finished with a great flourish of bows, to thunderous applause.
As part of the concert’s “wild card mystery segment”, Camerata premiered a new piece of music commissioned from their 2023 Emerging Composer-in-Residence, Ray Lin.
Referring to the “living, breathing, continually evolving art form,” of classical music, Joyce introduced the new work, titled Journey Through The Enchanted Landscapes. Inspired by Lin’s travel to North Queensland – particularly Airlie Beach, Collinsville, and Proserpine – as part of Camerata’s regional tour earlier in the year, the main theme of the piece is also structured with each letter of “Proserpine” aligned to a musical scale, from G to G. Divided into six short, distinct sections, Journey Through The Enchanted Landscapes had a warm, golden feeling overall, and I enjoyed the immersive sonic imagery of the landscape, from a gentle sunrise over the sugarcane to the threat of an unseen crocodile.
Viva Violin concluded with Mendelssohn’s fourth symphony, commonly known as the Italian symphony. Mendelssohn wrote this work during a summer in Italy, and it is full of optimistic energy. The first movement, Allegro vivace, is particularly jaunty and youthful, before moving into the more sombre marching of the second movement Andante con moto. The third movement returns to a lighter tone, playful, and the fourth movement launches right into a dramatic shift in pace for the Saltarello (Presto), a lively Italian dance.
Viva Violin was a concert of enchanting music and intense feeling, with Camerata and Catherina Lee delivering a thrilling and evocative performance.
Viva Violin was performed at Empire Theatres, Toowoomba, on 4 August 2023 and at the QPAC Concert Hall on 5 August 2023.
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