I might have wished for a little bit more of the Grand Organ, but this anniversary concert celebrating 120 years of the Melbourne Symphony Orchestra was still quite special.
I think I’ve been to the Melbourne Town Hall once for a comedy festival, but I doubt that I really appreciated its splendid ornate interior on that occasion. It was also where Australia’s oldest professional orchestra made its debut back in 1906, which made this concert a sort of homecoming. The Grand Organ dominates the venue; it spans three levels of the Town Hall and is the largest pipe organ in the Southern Hemisphere. I wish Hans Zimmer could have borrowed it for his arena shows, just for Interstellar.
The Grand Organ is what we were there for, but it was naturally saved for the finale, with a varied and intriguing program for the first half. It opened with Mendelssohn’s Nocturne from A Midsummer Night’s Dream, a tribute to the MSO’s past as this elegant and serene piece was one of the first works performed at the Melbourne Town Hall. For the purely crowd-pleasing section, there was the orchestral arrangement of Bizet’s fiery Carmen. It was the first ever opera I’ve seen live, and I can’t think of an opera more chock-full of hummable melodies. Sadly, I can’t ever listen to Overture without a giggle, all thanks to the Russian sketch comedy series which spoofed a classical orchestra in one of the episodes.
The first half also featured the works from Spanish-speaking composers I’ve never heard of before. Alberto Ginastera’s Four Dances, from a ballet set on an Argentine ranch, made for a mostly energetic and forceful performance, heavy on percussion, with the female conductor swaying freely to the beats. Danzón No. 2 by the Mexican composer Arturo Márquez was a lovely piece, inspired by the popular Cuban dance rhythms. It had a very wistful and nostalgic feel in places, and other times it made me want to dance in my seat.
After an interval, we got down to business with the concert centrepiece, Saint-Saëns’ Symphony No. 3, also known as the Organ Symphony. I’m completely unfamiliar with it, but Saint-Saëns is just so easy on the ear and I never feel like I have to work hard to tune into his music.
Two of the movements use the pipe organ, and after the first one I was resigned to only ever hearing the Grand Organ as a celestial background to the rest of the orchestra. Then, the last movement kicked off with the organ chord so thunderous it made me jump, and proceeded to throw in everything but the kitchen sink for a truly epic and intense finale. I’d love to be back at the Melbourne Town Hall for a full organ recital one day, but this was a wonderful and impressive taster.
P.S. I still love the Arts Precinct and the Royal Botanic Gardens are beautiful, but it took me a short walk from Flinders Street to the Melbourne Town Hall to realise that I don’t like being in the city all that much anymore. It’s way too crowded, not terribly clean, and a mentally unstable individual sitting on a lawn screaming at the top of his lungs didn’t help. I returned home with a whole new appreciation for my quiet and boring suburb.
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