★★★★☆ International and sweeping revisitation of World War One.

Concert Hall, QPAC
November 24, 2015

A hundred years have passed since the disastrous landings at Gallipoli; the last ten of them have been spent assembling The Gallipoli Symphony. Over the past decade, eleven noted composers from Turkey, New Zealand, and Australia have come together to reflect on a shared history and to musically retell the campaign’s story. Following an international premiere in Istanbul, the completed symphony has been brought to Australian soil for the first time.

With eleven compositions packed into a mere ninety minutes, the programme was incredibly brisk, but conductor Jessica Cottis leapt from theme to theme with consummate skill. Under her confident hand, the Queensland Symphony Orchestra, the St. Joseph’s College and All Hallows’ School Gallipoli Choir, The Australian Voices, and a clutch of seven soloists joined forces with remarkable unity and colour.

The first work, Gelibolu, opened the night with perhaps the most unusual instrument in percussion soloist Michael Askill’s arsenal – a bowl of water. Certainly a rarity for the modern orchestra (though by no means unheard of), this atypical beginning set the tone for an evening that was to foreground unusual solos and heightened narrativity. Composer...