As an opener to the first Maestro Concert of its 2021 season, Concertmaster Warwick Adeney made two important announcements. The first that Natsuko Yoshimoto, formerly the Concertmaster of the Adelaide Symphony Orchestra, was the newly appointed Co-Concertmaster of the Queensland Symphony Orchestra, and would be leading the orchestra for the evening’s performance. Following his successful period as Chief Conductor between 2008 to 2014, Conductor Laureate, Johannes Fritzsch, was also appointed Principal Conductor and Artistic Adviser to the orchestra for the next three years. The well-respected maestro has been one of the major influences on the artistic development of the orchestra over the past few decades. News of both appointments was greeted with rapturous applause by the audience and the concert was off to an exhilarating start before even one note had been played.

Johannes Fritzsch, Natsuko Yoshimoto and the Queensland Symphony Orchestra. Photo © Peter Wallis

With Maestro Fritzsch in firm control of the evening, the QSO served up a deliciously exotic program of Rimsky-Korsakov’s symphonic suite, Scheherazade, alongside Ravel’s apotheosis on the waltz, La Valse. Inspired by a collection of Middle Eastern folk tales, One Thousand and...