It was on the hottest day of the year that She Society kept our cool by heading to the Concert Hall, QPAC for the first Sunday concert for 2023. Played by our beloved Queensland Symphony Orchestra, Dancing Around The World, promised a feast of music with musical favourites: cancans, polkas, waltzes and hoedowns promising a toe tappingly good morning. Under the dancing baton of our Chief Conductor, Umberto Clerici , we were transported in time and place for just a while. In one morning we visited the Mediterranean, Eastern Europe, Australia and the Americas enjoying classic favourites and new pieces to whet our curiosity.
The program eased us in with some antique ballet music from Faust before everyone’s favourite, the Can Can gave the orchestra’s muscles a workout. Still in France we pirouetted with Manuel de Falla’s Suite No.1 from Three Cornered Hat , before being swept to Spain for the sultry fandango.
From the first bars our hands and feet were swaying along to Johann Strauss’s Voices of Spring, Op. 410. This piece remains a firm crowd favourite for any season of the year and we were treated to three waltzes in today’s program.
Heading to Hungary it was hard to sit still for Brahms Hungarian Dances. This folksy style just lends itself to dancing. A highlight of the concert for me was the violin solo from our Concertmaster, Natsuko Yashimoto. She delivered a flawless virtuoso solo in the Bartok number. The composer Bartok knew Hungarian tunes from birth and as an adult he collected the music of his native lands. This had a profound effect on his own compositions and in Rhapsody No.2 for Violin and Orchestra you could hear this influence.
We swayed along to Tchaikovsky’s Swan Lake before heading home briefly to Australia with the spacey and swirling Vortex. This one felt a little scary to me and I felt like Dorothy in the eye of a tornado.
To finish we enjoyed songs from the Americas. Florence Price composed her Dances in the Canebrakes with her African American roots in mind. As a former bush dancer the Hoe Down from Rodeo had me tapping along and thinking of my son in Texas. The whole audience were moving their bodies to Tico – tico no fuba from South America. A fitting finale to the show as it’s always been a perennial crowd favourite around the world and was even on the Billboard charts in the 1940’s when performed by the Andrews Sisters.
It was a truly joyous morning made more special because we heard a lot more from the percussion and brass sections than usual. It was just great to see the orchestra in full voice under the energetic presence of Umberto Clerici. Best of all was the enjoyment I saw on the faces all around me in this almost packed house. Music is for everyone and there was certainly something for every different musical taste in Dance Around the World.
Michelle Beesley is a Brisbane born and bred former primary school teacher. A wife, proud grandma and mother of three grown sons, Michelle is thrilled to have recently published her debut contemporary romance novel, It Happened in Paris, with Serenade Publishing. Her novella – Escape to D’ Amour was published in 2019. Michelle’s work can be found in the anthologies – Destination Romance and Short & Sweet. When not reading or writing Michelle can be found at a coffee shop chatting with friends, front row at a fashion show, or beside a rugby union field cheering on her favourite teams.
Michelle is a reluctant traveller, Francophile, keen walker and avid yoga enthusiast plus a book, film and theatre lover who loves everything pink and sparkly (including champagne). You can find Michelle on instagram @michellebeesley_writer and her website: michellebeesley.com.
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