This concert kicked off with Australian composer Matthew Hindson’s 1995 piece Speed. QSO played it with intensity, and conductor Jessica Cottis kept things crisp, but I’m going to say that it’s a profoundly dated piece. It’s an homage to sweaty, drug-fuelled, mid-‘90s techno, and it’s also way, way, way too long at 16 minutes.

My notes for the performance say, “Very bolted-on middle section – why cello solo?” And lo and behold, it turns out that Hindson later revised the piece in 2002 under the title LiteSpeed, which brings it down to a far more concise six minutes. There’s a reason most dance tracks aren’t a quarter of an hour long!

Still, there were some nice moments, with the brass really letting rip with the groaning glissando motif that keeps showing up throughout. Incidentally, the original 1995 program note for the piece is an incredible example of someone not quite getting the vibe; one small quote is, “Techno music has a singular energy, which speaks for a certain facet of ‘underground’ society or ‘street’ culture.”

James Ehnes. Photo © Benjamin Ealovega

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