Concert: Symphony in the Park

By Michael de Percy

16 March 2010: Signalling the end of the Canberra Festival, the 97 year-old community received a free treat (courtesy of the Chief Minister) with the performance of a relative unknown on the Canberra music scene.

While enjoying some wine from Chile, caviar from Denmark, aged brie from France and a baguette from the Belconnen Markets, I took advantage of another local freebie and went to enjoy the performance of the Canberra Symphony Orchestra (CSO) and the Singers of Canberra at Stage 88 in Commonwealth Park.

I love free concerts. If only the Chief Minister knew I would have paid for this one, he might not have been so keen to inaugurate Symphony in the Park for free. It is too late now, because the free Symphony in the Park is here to stay. If you think it won’t remain as a free event, just think Floriade.

I have never seen a performance of the CSO before. Now I have, where do I subscribe? Why were they hidden from me for so long? How could we have such wonderful talent and hide them behind old-fashioned, self-defeating modesty? All it took was one TV ad to get me there – why did they wait for a decade to let me know?

We arrived early to the gig and sat on a picnic blanket right up the front but just behind the ‘mosh pit’. Thankfully, there were no ‘moshers’ throughout the whole performance, so our picnic was completely safe.

The performance was launched with the Marriage of Figaro followed by several movements from Carmen, the Ride of the Valkyries, and the theme from the Man from Snowy River to name a few.

The Singers of Canberra, comprising an ensemble of three distinct local choirs, performed admirably, especially during Handel’s Messiah. This gave me an opportunity to try to recall the tenor part out loud but I was cut short by my wife.

The ensemble was conducted by Guy Noble, a respected professional. He managed to keep the audience engaged despite a sound system that made the orchestra sound like we were listening on a dodgy radio out in the bush. Noble provided the perfect blend of class and crassness for a performance where you could see the musicians arriving from all directions while you sat back scoffing your own classy hors d'œuvres.

With the ‘French Masters’ sitting just across the lake, it would have been easy to leave the cultural cringe behind on this perfect autumn evening. But you couldn’t get too pompous at this gig because the bats squawked as they flew overhead in a deliberate attempt to remind you that you were trying to style- up in the Great South Land.