Cinderella and Scheherazade

Fairytales have been the inspiration for some of the world’s most beloved ballets, musicals and films - Disney built a franchise on them - so when the QSO decided to theme their Music on Sundays program around music that was inspired by them, there was no shortage of material. This 90-minute program, which offered the work of eight composers, was not only diverse in its selection but populist.

The highlight was unquestionably the dazzling performance by 17-year old piano-prodigy Calvin Abdiel of Saint-Saens Africa – Fantasy for Piano and Orchestra. The rarely heard work, whose climax is built on a Tunisian folk-tune, featured passages of intensely difficult piano melody that were then repeated by the orchestra. With its unusual syncopated rhythms based on North African musical patterns, it was a spectacular showcase for piano, which was executed dynamically by Abdeil. His encore, which was just as dazzling, was a piano only arrangement of Bizet’s “Gypsy Song” from Carmen.

Peer Gynt’s “Morning Mood” with its lyrical pastoral theme was a nice precursor to the bassoon bombast of the same suite’s “In the Hall of the Mountain King”, whilst two waltzes, Prokofiev’s minor-keyed title-piece from Cinderella and Johann Strauss ll’s distinctly European “Fairytales from the Orient”, were agreeable excursions into the fairytale world.

Tchaikovsky’s classic “Adagio” from The Sleeping Beauty was an audience pleaser, as was Rimsky-Korsakov’s “The Tale of the Kalendar Prince” from Scheherazade, which continually surprised with its exoticism.

The brass-section were in particularly good form opening the concert with John Williams’ exciting main-theme from Star Wars, and closing it with Stravinsky’s equally exciting The Firebird Suite.

Guy Noble, no stranger to the Music on Sundays programs, was a flamboyant and witty host, whilst conductor Richard Davis’ dramatic podium body-language translated into some highly disciplined orchestral playing.

Peter Pinne