A sea of Union Jacks (OK, we know they’re not really called that!) and Australian flags, along with many people dressed in red, white and blue set the jolly tone for a quintessentially British evening.
As the tide of people flowed into City Hall for '(Not) The 'Last Night Of The Proms', we also spotted Scottish, Welsh, English and even Queensland flags!
Brisbane City Hall is a beautiful venue, having been extensively refurbished over a three-year period at the start of this decade. The magnificent auditorium with its illuminated domed ceiling, restored organ and newly enhanced acoustics provides a suitably splendid venue for the typically grand music that characterises this now annual musical event.
Host and conductor for the evening, Guy Noble, was in high spirits as he took to the stage, reading out an amusing ‘apology’ from Prince Charles and Camilla in suitably plummy tones, and quipping about the Brexit referendum. This set the scene for a far less formal than usual QSO performance, with de rigueur audience participation, and some gentle ribbing of Associate Concertmaster Alan Smith, all taken in good part. The laughter from the audience was easy and unaffected, with everyone in good humour, and all rose unasked at the opening bars of 'God Save the Queen'.
© Karen HuttBrimming with stirring compositions, the programme echoed the format of the popular British institution that it emulates. Starting with an array of familiar international pieces, and featuring well-known tenor David Hobson and the voices of the Brisbane Chorale alongside a full QSO retinue, the programme then moved onto the renowned canon of Wood, Arne, Parry and Elgar. In these latter compositions the audience is invited to join in, stamping along to 'Fantasy on British Sea Songs', in a comical race against the speed and skill of the orchestra (which the orchestra easily won!), and singing along to 'Rule Britannia!', 'Jerusalem' and 'Land of Hope and Glory' complete with vigorous flag-waving. Audience participation is undoubtedly a big part of the feel-good factor engendered by this type of evening, and everyone left in a noticeably buoyant mood.
Photos from '(Not) The Last Night Of The Proms' here.
It is interesting to note that many of these tunes, as familiar and iconic as they are to us at the start of the 21st century, in fact evolved into their present form over time, rather than being conceived as a single piece at the start. Thus, what is arguably Ennio Morricone’s best known work, 'Nella Fantasia', is in fact a product of Morricone’s composition, 'Gabriel’s Oboe', written for the film 'The Mission', with additional words added later at the behest of Sarah Brightman. 'Jerusalem' is Hubert Parry’s composition using William Blake’s poem of the same name. Borodin’s 'Polovtsian Dances' were unfinished by the time he died and were completed by Rimsky-Korsakov and Glazunov. Arthur C Benson was commissioned to write words to fit the trio section of 'Pomp and Circumstance No 1' which resulted in the 'Land of Hope and Glory' theme that is so familiar - and the rest, as they say, is history.
© Karen HuttThe evolution of these pieces does nothing to detract from, and indeed may even enhance, their grandeur. The whole was delivered with aplomb by the assembled artists, and although once or twice the percussion section seemed to miscue slightly, in every other area, including the highly challenging hornpipe section in 'Fantasy on British Sea Songs', the delivery was faultless. At the head of the programme it was nice to see Beethoven’s 'Coriolan Overture', which was performed last month as part of an all-Beethoven QSO Maestro series concert at QPAC.
QSO’s tribute to the legendary 'Last Night Of The Proms' is extremely popular, and is becoming something of an institution itself—it will, we hope, continue to feature in the QSO programme.
Ludwig van Beethoven—Overture to Coriolan Op.62
Morricone—The Mission, Nella Fantasia
Liszt—Hungarian Rhapsody No.2 in D minor
Donizetti—L’esir d’amore, Una furtive lagrima
Borodin—Polovtsian Dances from Prince Igor
Bart—Reviewing the Situation from Oliver
Wood arr. Lawson—Fantasy on British Sea Songs
Arne—Rule, Brittania!
Parry—Jerusalem
Elgar—Pomp and Circumstance No.1 in D Major
