As the name suggests, Queensland Symphony Orchestra presented two concerts featuring works by Ludwig Van Beethoven and Sir Edward Elgar in July. Guest conductor Joseph Swensen led the orchestra with dynamism and large, forceful gestures, and acclaimed Australian pianist Jayson Gillham returned to the QPAC Concert Hall as a guest soloist for Beethoven’s Piano Concerto No.1, which he described as “youthful and vigorous…a joy to play and to listen to.”
First violinist Mia Stanton introduced the concert, describing the Beethoven concerto as playful and warm and noting that many musicians from the QSO had not played the Elgar symphony before, as it is rarely performed in Australia.
The first half of the concert was works by Beethoven, starting with his overture to Egmont, a play by Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, for which Beethoven was invited to write the incidental music. The play follows Count Egmont, rebelling against Spanish rule in The Netherlands, who is sentenced to death and calls for his people to defend their homeland as he dies a martyr. A dramatic opening gave way to floating woodwinds, rising in drama and intensity to the triumphant thundering of the orchestra in the final minutes.
Beethoven premiered his first piano concerto in the 1790s to exhibit his skill as a pianist, and this piece of music divided the orchestra and soloist to showcase both individually. The first movement of Concerto No.1 in C for Piano and Orchestra provided a lively, rolling introduction of the orchestra before the soloist entered. At the piano, Gillham played an incredible waterfall of notes, clear and bright, ascending and descending, drifting and dancing with the strings and woodwinds before the full orchestra chimed in again. Gillham’s performance was very impressive, executed with speed and precision and often with one hand crossing over the other on the keys.
Following the interval, the concert continued with Elgar’s second symphony, which he described as a “passionate pilgrimage of the soul” and was inspired by the loss of his king, King Edward VII, as well as grief for two good friends, musician Alfred Rodewald and music publisher August Jaeger.
Symphony No.2 in E flat had a grand opening, the Allegro vivace e nobilmente building in broad strokes before slowing to a more tranquil energy with ethereal strings. An increasing intensity of feeling raced to the movement’s conclusion. The second movement, the funereal Larghetto, was softer and more sombre, with waves of grief and sweet remembrances swelling and receding. The Rondo was leaping and almost otherworldly; momentum was maintained with rapid shifts, with brass and percussion crashing and a dramatic finish. The fourth and final movement, Moderato e maestoso, returned to the theme of the first movement (nicknamed the Spirit of Delight) but felt more boisterous in the finale.
Queensland Symphony Orchestra’s Beethoven and Elgar was full of colour, feeling, and detail, dynamically conducted by Joesph Swensen and featuring an incredible performance of Beethoven’s first piano concerto by soloist Jayson Gillham.
Beethoven and Elgar was performed at the QPAC Concert Hall from 28 – 29 July 2023.
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