The final Maestro concert for 2023, Micro-Masterpieces, was a magnificent 150 year-long journey through the Classical era. It was also the last of the Queensland Symphony Orchestra’s themed Classical programs devised by its Chief Conductor, Umberto Clerici.

Umberto Clerici conducts the QSO in Micro Masterpieces. Photo © Darren Thomas

Each masterpiece had been carefully selected as an homage to Mozart’s unique compositional art, beginning with the ‘Italian Mozart’, Rossini, who refused to adapt to the 19th-century era of Romanticism, clinging instead to the outdated Classical style.

His explosive Overture to The Barber of Seville is always an audience favourite, and opened the concert with an exciting bang. Rossini actually took the overture from his previous opera, Aureliano in Palmira, and it has had an indelible influence on pop culture, with countless tributes and parodies from Looney Tunes’ Bugs Bunny to Seinfeld. It even featured in The Simpsons. 

The effervescent and lively music from the Opera buffa perfectly matched the bubbly eccentricity of Turin-born Clerici. After a dog-like shake, he energetically launched the QSO with a nod, a leap and flailing arms. Throughout the overture, he leapt and bounded, miming the pizzicato with waggling fingers, then crouching and pouncing as he...