QSO Favourites

Featuring music voted as favourite by QSO audiences and internationally renowned conductor, Douglas Boyd, this introduction to the orchestra’s 2026 season featured a truly enjoyable menu of uplifting and inspiring musical treats. Glenn Christensen was our Concertmaster and, to add to the enjoyment, the programme was presented by self-confessed musical adventurer and QSO fan, Ed Le Brocq, who did some introductions, put us in the picture with some musical backgrounds, and interviewed the conductor on stage.

‘The Dam Busters March’ by Eric Coates is an uplifting musical piece, familiar of course from the film starring Michael Redgrave and Richard Todd, and from many a military or air-show march. This flight across the North Sea transported us next to the German countryside and Ludwig Van Beethoven’s ‘Symphony No. 6 Pastoral’. The interplay with nature continued with ‘Waltz of the Flowers’ from ‘The Nutcracker Suite No. 1’ by Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky, the introduction featuring the cascading, dreamlike harp playing of Emily Granger. From green forests to melancholic crashing waves, next British composer, Edward Elgar’s ‘Cello Concerto (4th movement)’ gave the orchestra an opportunity to showcase one of its Young Instrumentalist Prize winners and Youth Symphony Orchestra cellists, 17-year-old Patrick Phillips, who impressed the crowd with his mature take on the foreboding musical piece, especially considering that this was his first performance with the magnitude of the QSO’s full orchestra.

Contemporary Australian composer, Jessica Wells, was in the audience to hear her recent fanfare, ‘Uplift’ performed. Jessica’s work will be familiar to many through her compositions for ABC TV’s programmes ‘Q&A’ and ‘Compass’. You may have also seen her name in the credits for films such as ‘How to Train Your Dragon’ and ‘Elvis’. As our host explained, Jessica was invited to write ‘Uplift’ for the Sydney Symphony Orchestra’s Fifty Fanfares Project, after the lockdowns of the pandemic. With patrons Dr Jeannette Young and Professor Graeme Nimmo in the audience, it was a nice touch for Ed to take the time to remind us of that time and thank Dr Young for helping us through that difficult phase when, apart from the stresses of the pandemic, we could not so easily enjoy live music. The joy of the release was perfectly captured by ‘Uplift’, a piece that starts with violin bows clacking against their instruments like impatient fingers tapping on a desk, waiting for a ticking clock to count down, but swiftly segues to a soaring and lilting landscape. The featured vibraphone performed by percussionist David Montgomery was a sensational addition.

Conductor, Douglas Boyd, explained his next choice, Elgar’s ‘Enigma Variations (Theme and 14 Variations)’, among his favourites for the way the pieces melodically describe Elgar’s close circle of friends, like sketches or short films. This extended piece gave the perfect opportunity to follow the music beyond the amazing harmonic string section at the front of the stage, and let your ears wander to the anchoring bass notes of the larger string instruments, the woodwind section, to find a contrabassoon in action, animated French horns, tuba, and gliding flutes and piccolo, to the percussionists at the back of the stage. Elgar’s ‘Enigma Variations’ provides an entertaining catalogue of percussion parts for these experts whose quiet confidence can make or break a piece – Jacob Enoka may only step up to crash or gently prise the cymbals a few times, but the effect is crucial; likewise Josh DeMarchi’s handling of the giant concert bass drum; and Tim Corkeron’s expert time-keeping and the emotional puncutation of his timpani playing. The closing of this piece even featured the other-worldly sound of the Concert Hall’s gorgeous Klais Grand Organ. Wow! What a note to finish on. There was something for everyone, and this musical collection just left the crowd wanting more from these world-class players. Fortunately, the QSO has many more gigs lined up for 2026!

Beth Keehn

Photographs by Stephen Henry

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