The Queensland Symphony Orchestra presents the 2021 Season Closing Gala

Concert Hall, QPAC

Sat 4th, Dec 2021

Conductor Umberto Clerici 

ROSSINI Overture to La gazza ladra (The Thieving Magpie)

DEBUSSY La mer (The Sea)

R. STRAUSS Suite from Der Rosenkavalier (The Knight of the Rose)

Dr Gemma Regan

 

An exhilarating end to a year of exquisite concerts!

 

The finale to the Queensland Symphony Orchestra’s Maestro 2021 season closed as it opened with the great symphonic works from Rossini, Debussy and Strauss. Due to the continued ongoing international COVID-19 uncertainties, the planned Four Last Songs concert with conductor Ludovic Morlot and soprano Emma Pearson were replaced with the Closing Gala concert showcasing three orchestral styles and the ebullient conductor maestro Umberto Clerici at the helm.

 

The Italian gifted cellist Clerici is a great host and entertainer, with his irrepressible latin flamboyance and humour as well as being a talented and much sought-after Conductor.  He last conducted with the QSO in March in the Musical Landscapes concert, forming a hilarious double-act with Guy Noble as part of the Music on Sundays program. Noble had met his match at the time whilst teasing the former cellist Clerici about why he was now conducting instead of playing. Clerici had retorted that “a baton makes less bad sounds!” Clerici’s humour again had the audience doubled up in their seats after exclaiming that the QSO’s closing concert was a quirky social commentary on politics (The Thieving Magpie); climate change (The Sea); and gender equality (The Knight of the Rose) with two 23 minute “hits.” 

 

There was an emotional welcome and farewell as the QSO’s Director of Planning, Timothy Matthews opened the evening and noted the recent passing of the much-loved Tasmanian pianist and conductor Max Olding AM, at the ripe age of 92. Then a drum roll launched the concert with Rossini’s quintessentially Italian opera semiseria, the equivalent of a modern-day soap opera.  The Overture to La gazza ladra is full of comical musical nuances with a magpie as the main character, mimicked brilliantly by Kate Lawson’s piccolo. The pace and orchestra becomes frantic when the copyist loses the sheets of a freshly composed score out of the window. 

 

The piece was famously popularised in A Clockwork Orange when protagonist and leader Alex and his gang engage in horrific acts of violence. Clerici mimicked the actions of Alex, thrashing violently with his baton at the enormous orchestra, as they raced through the musical mayhem to a cymbal crashing end.  

 

Debussy’s three contrasting symphonic movements of La Mer encapsulated three moods of the sea using Japanese-inspired pentatonic scales. Dawn to Noon on the Sea aurally illustrated the calm before the storm, with rippling extraneous notes peaking and dipping on the waves, ending with a delicious crescendo and soft cymbal as the sun reaches it’s zenith at midday. 

 

The two delicate harps and frivolous flutes flowed and rippled as Clerici floated to the Play of the Waves. When a fortissimo mistral raged under a grey sky in Dialogue of the Wind, the orchestra phased in and out spectacularly with hints of Holst’s Mars raging as each wave crescendoed and crashed to an abrupt end.

 

Richard Strauss’ comical opera Der Rosenkavalier (The Knight of the Rose) is set in Vienna during the 18th century with hints of Molière’s comedy Monsieur de Pourceaugnac and loosely adapted from the novel Les amours du chevalier de Faublas by Louvet de Couvrai. Maestro Clerici scoffed that it was as comical as a German can achieve! 

 

The French horns throbbed with the passion of a love affair until the fickle Count Octavian meets a new love interest, Sophie. The orchestra spilled over with his love and lust whilst the harps sparkled like the silver rose he presents to her on behalf of his master, the Baron. Clerici drew vast globes and pogoed around the podium to the stuttering waltzes and hesitant melodies which resolved into a final jubilant waltz as the pair finally united. 

 

The rapturous applause was milked by Clerici with the audience thanking each section of the QSO in turn for their exhilarating year of exquisite concerts. Clerici hugged many of the musicians including Concertmaster Natsuko Yoshimoto, with particular attention payed to his fellow cellists.  It was an exhilarating end to a year of exquisite concerts from the QSO, whose skills showcased centuries of orchestral music despite the ongoing challenges of 2021. 

 

Tickets are already on sale for QSO’s tremendous and hopefully less tumultuous 2022 program to celebrate their 75th anniversary, featuring both World and Australian compositions and a record number of concerts! Principal Conductor Johannes Fritzsch will be at the helm in 2022 with guest conductors including Umberto Clerici. A brand new work from composer Craig Allister Young has been commissioned to celebrate their 75th birthday. In April the QSO will also celebrate the 90th birthday of John Williams, the supreme Dark Lord of movie music.

 

The concert was recorded for air-play on ABC Classic in the near future.