Magnificent Setting Green Amphitheatre

IT WAS a tranquil and beautiful setting – a magnificent green amphitheatre that framed the orchestra and audience on a beautiful mild winter’s afternoon for Sunday’s performance of the Barrier Reef Orchestra in Queen’s Gardens.

Presented by the Australian Festival of Chamber Music, the annual free concert was emceed by Steve Price.

Starting with a welcome from the Wulgurukaba Walkabouts aboriginal dance group, conductor Theodore Kuchar took to the podium to guide the orchestra and guests through the orchestral program in his customary genial and animated fashion.

The founding artistic director of the AFCM in 1991, Kuchar maintains his long association and friendship with Townsville now as the artistic director of the Barrier Reef Orchestra, and it was fitting that he should be here to lead the orchestra for its appearance at the festival.

The impressively stirring sounds of John Williams’ Theme from Superman began the concert and set the tone for a diverse program which varied from delicate and tranquil to martial and rousing.

The complicated syncopated rhythms of Leonard Bernstein’s Mambo from West Side Story gave way to the delicate almost Orientally-infused Dance of the Paper Umbrellas from Australian-based composer Elena Kats-Chernin, herself a resident composer some years ago with the festival.

An excerpt from Antonín Dvořák’s cheerful and optimistic 1889 Symphony No 8 in G major closed the first half before seven international guest musicians - here for the Festival - evoked a great audience response to Beethoven’s Septet in E-Flat major for Winds and Strings.  Much to the composer’s dismay it was a great favourite during his lifetime, just as it was for the several hundred in the audience who appreciated the talent and performance by the seven musicians.

Reflecting the tranquillity of the surroundings, guest flautist Anna Rabinowicz then joined the orchestra for Gluck’s Dance of the Blessed Spirits from the 1762 opera Orphée et Eurydice.

The familiar tempo and intricacies of Vittorio Monti’s Csárdás was expertly handled by guest clarinettist Julian Bliss, who clearly evoked the Hungarian roots of the piece.

The astrological significance of the planet Jupiter is “the bringer of jollity” and Kuchar once again displayed his precise and disciplined conducting with the exuberant Jupiter movement from Gustav Holst’s The Planets.

The final item was the intergalactic rousing and positive themes from John Williams’ Star Wars, which played out just as daylight started to dip and subtle lighting appeared under the leafy canopy to bring the concert to an end.

The organisation of outdoor music events like this is no mean feat and takes a great deal of preparation, organisation and co-ordination.  A special thank you to the staff and many volunteers who helped make this event run smoothly.

Trevor Keeling

Photographers: Andrew Rankin and Vicky Katthagen