Queensland Symphony Orchestra’s Dreams & Stories concert brought together an interesting range of pieces and composers, from guest soloist William Barton to John Williams, Sculthorpe, Mendelssohn, and Stravinsky.
Part of the orchestra’s Music on Sundays series, Dreams & Stories was a midday concert hosted by vocalist Ashleigh Denning and led by guest conductor Katharina Wincor on her first visit to Australia. The selection of programmed works explored and celebrated storytelling in its many forms, including music, ballet, theatre, and cinema.
QSO always provides a handy guide to the orchestra sections in their programme, as well as details of each piece’s history and sometimes the history of its composer. We were seated in the balcony, and from that vantage point especially it was clear how the orchestra worked as a whole, the part each section played, and the way that the music moved through the shape of the orchestra as it was vigorously conducted by Wincor.
The concert began with Mendelssohn’s Overture to A Midsummer Night’s Dream, a whimsical and dreamy piece that conjured Shakespeare’s shimmering, fairy-filled wood. As someone who grew up learning and seeing ballet, I love the drama and imagery of classical music composed for that medium.
Peter Sculthorpe’s Kakadu was my personal favourite from the concert. Originally premiered in 1988, Kakadu is inspired by the National Park of the same name in the Northern Territory. William Barton was the Yidaki/Didgeridoo soloist for this piece, which did not originally include a part for didgeridoo but was rewritten by Sculthorpe in 2003, specifically after hearing Barton play. The work premiered at the Aspen Music Festival – a very long way from Kakadu – commissioned by Dr Emanuel Papper for his wife’s birthday, but uniquely captures the grandeur and danger of the Australian landscape.
Barton began in the audience, singing acapella as he approached the stage. Sculthorpe’s compositions are so strongly evocative; I felt as though the landscape was rushing past me, from the screeching of birds overhead in the violins to a sense of stillness in the middle of the piece.
After Kakadu, Barton spoke about the next piece: Sky Songs, one of his own compositions, written when he was fifteen and inspired by passing on culture around the campfire at night. Barton was joined onstage by Glen Barry and Mark Williams, who both played Yidaki/Didgeridoo while Barton played guitar. Barton noted that Sky Songs is part of a larger work, and this excerpt used unusual percussion that reminded me of cicadas in the trees.
Ashleigh Denning returned to the stage to speak about the Viennese waltz craze in the 19th century, which was transformed by the music of the Strauss family, and introduced the next piece by The Waltz King, Johann Strauss Jr: Tales from the Vienna Woods. Although Strauss’ piece has a fairytale title, it was simply composed as a waltz and named as a nod to the local folk music that was played in the forested Viennese highlands. Denning also mentioned the small, plucked stringed instrument called a zither which was included in the 1868 orchestration of the waltz, and noted that the sound of the historical instrument would be emulated by the orchestra’s strings.
After the waltz, Denning introduced Harry’s Wondrous World, from the movie Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone, and spoke about the significant musical legacy of composer John Williams. Harry’s Wondrous World can be heard at the end of the first film in the famous series, and is associated with Harry’s relationship with Ron and Hermione. As for many millennials who grew up as that megalith of a franchise unfolded, the warmth of this piece evoked affectionate nostalgia for me.
Dreams & Stories concluded with selections from Igor Stravinsky’s 1919 The Firebird suite. Another orchestral suite written for ballet in 1911, and revised in 1919, The Firebird draws on Russian folklore to tell the story of a mythical, phoenix-like bird who bewitches heroic prince Ivan Tsarevich and helps him to rescue imprisoned princesses from the demon Kashchei. Dreams & Stories included music from the final part of the ballet, in which Kashchei captures Ivan and attempts to turn him into a statue; but Ivan summons the Firebird, who lulls Kashchei and his monsters to sleep in order to break the spell and free the princesses. There was the frenzied whirlwind of Kashchei’s pursuit of Ivan and then the lulling spiral downward of the Firebird’s lullaby, before spiralling back up into a joyful and triumphant celebration. This piece finished the Dreams and Stories concert on a jubilant note.
Dreams & Stories was performed at the QPAC Concert Hall on 18 August 2024
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