Llewellyn Hall, ANU, Canberra
July 18, 2018

Johannes Brahms didn’t really want any fanfares when the University of Breslau, in Poland, told him he would be awarded an honorary doctorate in 1879. He would have been quite happy to write a “thank you” note. Thankfully for us, 140 years on, he was persuaded to write his Academic Festival Overture instead. He conducted its premiere at the conferring ceremony in January 1881.

It’s not the serious, stately piece one might expect at such a solemn, if celebratory, occasion; quite the opposite – an arrangement of student drinking songs. And Brahms must have smiled broadly when he wrote the soft and solemn opening. Martin Buzacott, in his notes published in the program booklet for this concert, says that students liked it so much they “began singing their own obscene versions of the words” during the performance!

Brahms’ masterful orchestration underscores his humour, but also gives the work an intellectual quality that makes it enjoyable for orchestra and listener alike. Conducting from memory, Nicholas Milton and the Canberra Symphony Orchestra proved that quality to be true. Milton’s style might be exuberant – some would say theatrical – but very expressive. He immerses himself and his...