I do like the celebratory mood of a good season closer. There’s a hair-down kind of feeling that kicks in as the players power their way to the end of the season, and here, in QSO’s top-notch season closing gala, that mood was in full effect.

Conductor Umberto Clerici leads the Queensland Symphony Orchestra in its 2021 Season Closing Gala. Photo © Peter Wallis.

I was very impressed with Umberto Clerici’s confident, powerful conducting earlier in the year where he lit up QSO in an incendiary performance of Stravinsky’s Firebird. So, I was expecting great things out of him for the performance here. To cut the suspense, boy, did he ever succeed. QSO, please give this man an extra paycheque, buy him a case of wine, whatever it takes – he’s good.

The performance began with Rossini’s La gazza ladra overture. It may be a little played out (I can’t help but think of the Sony ad from a few years ago, to my annoyance), but it can still be fun when an orchestra really rips into it,...