★★★★☆ Crisp and refreshing – and the music is pretty good, too.

QPAC Concert Hall
May 20, 2016

According to popular wisdom, classical music has a bit of a problem attracting younger audiences. Opera audiences are comprised entirely of the aged and well-off, perhaps peering through a pince-nez, or with a fox-fur draped over one shoulder. General classical concerts attract only those driving the most luxury of automobiles. These wild generalisations are, of course, rubbish. I’m a bearded twenty-something who plays in a band, and yet here I am, reviewing Beethoven.

Personally, I think QSO is onto something with this performance. For this concert (the first of the Sundowner series), they’ve made a number of interesting changes to their usual method of doing things. First and most obviously, they’re giving out a bottle of beer with each ticket bought, in partnership with local brewery Newstead Brewing Co. As a method of attracting a younger audience to the concert, it’s not a bad idea. This pulls the concert far more in line with the experience of attending a rock gig in that you can enjoy a drink after work while watching a performance, something that I don’t think anyone could object...