Are you one of those people that likes coriander in your food? Imagine that you went to a café, cast your gaze over the menu, and ordered something that sounded incredible, only to realise that, unannounced, the thing you’d ordered was absolutely jam-packed with coriander.

That’s great for some, but for those that don’t like it, there’s the sense that you’d have preferred what you ordered.

Umberto Clerici conducts the Queensland Symphony Orchestra. Photo © Peter Wallis.

So, it was with a sinking feeling that I realised that this QSO performance wasn’t just them playing Berlioz’s Symphonie fantastique (as well as Saint-Saëns and Ravel), but instead was some kind of concert-meets-theatre mash-up.

Last year I reviewed Musica Viva’s Chopin’s Piano, which attempted a similar thing with very mixed results. I notice, in retrospect, that almost none of QSO’s advertising makes much mention of this aspect of the performance.

Before the first half began, actor Robert Hofmann came onstage as Saint-Saëns himself, and gave us a Saint-Saëns 101 biography. This led to musings on the hot-button issue of truth versus beauty; what should...