Simone Young leads an excellent ensemble through their most recent Mahlerian achievement.

QPAC Concert Hall
September 12, 2015

Almost 12 years ago I was “public enemy number one” for the Arts Editor of the Brisbane Courier-Mail because (unforgivable from a former Brisbane-boy) I had written that the Queensland Symphony Orchestra was then the worst in Australia. Hostilities lasted for about a week, with daily attacks in the paper, yet last year a member of the current QSO told me, “You were right”. Soon enough, Johannes Fritzsch was appointed as the new Chief Conductor and he began the essential process or rebuilding both quality and esteem in the orchestra.

Basing my judgement on their recent Mahler performances with Simone Young – the First Symphony in 2014 and, even more spectacularly, the massive Sixth this year – and having heard them under Fritzsch in a couple of operatic performances, I can say that the QSO is now an excellent ensemble: indeed, it is difficult to imagine any other of the Australian orchestras surpassing this most recent Mahlerian achievement.

The Sixth Symphony is a vast piece – probably too vast – demanding, for example, six trumpets and eight horns. Even Richard Strauss, an exceedingly...