Queensland Symphony Orchestra
QSO FAVOURITES
Livestream from QPAC Concert Hall to the Riverside screen
In the lead up to QSO’s 75th birthday celebrations, they asked their audience one question: what are your favourite pieces that QSO has performed in the past?
Suggestions came back thick and fast! QSO is delighted to present another edition of QSO Favourites, where they perform orchestral classics suggested by you, alongside some of their favourite works too.
From undisputed masterpieces of the classical era, such as Beethoven’s Symphony No.5 and Holst’s The Planets through to popular movie music such as Star Wars and much more, this is a concert that’s guaranteed to send you home humming!
Classification
E – Exempt from Classification
Country of Origin
Australia
PRE-PERFORMANCE TALK
Pre-concert talk with Paul Smith – Senior Lecturer in Music, University of New England

If you are unwell, please stay at home. Please review our Patron Safety & Entry Guidelines before you visit us at Riverside.
Riverside Theatres requires anyone aged 16 years and over to be fully vaccinated unless lawfully exempt.
Masks are mandatory – please bring and wear a mask. Patrons aged 12 and over attending performances are required to wear a mask in all indoor settings.
QR code check-in – all patrons and their guests must check-in upon entry.
Riverside Theatres is operating at 100% capacity across all our seated venues, with no physical distancing between seats.
If you have any questions and would like to discuss this with a member of our team, please contact our Box Office staff on 02 8839 3399 or email boxoffice_riverside@cityofparramatta.nsw.gov.au
Thank you for keeping our community safe.
Beethoven
Symphony No.5 in C minor, mvt 1: Allegro con brio
Berlioz
Hungarian March, from The Damnation of Faust
Rimsky-Korsakov
Scheherazade, Op.35 3. The Young Prince and the Princess (Andantino quasi allegretto)
Mahler
Adagietto, from Symphony No.5
Saint-Saëns
Symphony No.3 in C minor, Op.78 (Organ Symphony) IV. Maestoso – Allegro
Young
Fanfare for the Seventy-fifth Anniversary of the Queensland Symphony Orchestra (World Premiere)
Prokofiev
Suite No.2 from Romeo and Juliet, Op.64 1. The Montagues and the Capulets
Tchaikovsky
Excerpts from Suite from Swan Lake, Op.20a
J Strauss Jr.
On the Beautiful Blue Danube
Holst
Jupiter, the Bringer of Jollity from The Planets
Williams
Star Wars Main Theme
Johannes Fritzsch – Conductor
Johannes Fritzsch was appointed Principal Conductor and Artistic Adviser of the Queensland Symphony Orchestra in February, 2021 having previously served as their Chief Conductor (2008-2014). Since 2018, Johannes has held the position of Principal Guest Conductor of the Tasmanian Symphony Orchestra.
From 2006 – 2013 he was Chief Conductor and Artistic Director of the Oper Graz, Grazer Philharmonisches Orchester (Austria). Prior to his appointment in Graz, Johannes held the position of Chief Conductor and Artistic Director of the Staatsoper Nürnberg. From 1993 until 1999, he was Chief Conductor and Artistic Director of the Städtische Bühnen and the Philharmonic Orchestra in Freiburg.
Johannes was born in 1960 in Meissen, near Dresden, Germany, where he completed his musical education. He has conducted many leading orchestras, both within Germany and internationally. He regularly conducts the major Australasian orchestras as well as leading productions for Opera Australia, Opera Queensland, West Australian Opera and State Opera of South Australia.
In January 2015, Johannes was appointed Adjunct Professor, The Conservatorium of Music, School of Creative Arts and Media at the University of Tasmania; in June 2019, he joined the Queensland Conservatorium, Griffith University as Professor of Opera and Orchestral Studies.
Over the past twenty years, Johannes has given many Masterclasses for the German conductor training and development organisation Dirigentenforum des Deutschen Musikrates. Similarly, he was active and enthusiastic in the training of conducting participants selected to take part in Symphony Services’ International Conductor Development Program.
In 2017, the Tasmanian Symphony Orchestra invited him to design and lead the newly founded Australian Conducting Academy.
In 2021, he conducts the Auckland Philharmonia and the Sydney, Melbourne, Queensland, Tasmanian and West Australian Symphony Orchestras.
Dr Paul Smith
Senior Lecturer in Music – Faculty of Humanities, Arts, Social Sciences and Education; School of Humanities, Arts, and Social Sciences
Biography
Paul is a composer and researcher based in Sydney who specialises in writing opera and music for the toy piano. He holds a Doctorate of Creative Arts from Western Sydney University and is the co-artistic director of Blush Opera. Paul has collaborated internationally and his music and operas have premiered in Singapore, the UK, Italy, the USA, and Armenia in addition to Australian festivals and concert performances. In 2021, his largest operatic work, Chop Chef, a collaboration with writer and satirist Julie Koh which explores reality TV food competitions, will be premiered in Parramatta at Riverside Theatre. In 2018, Paul was an artist in residence with the Art and Cultural Studies Laboratory in Yerevan Armenia, where he worked on three new pieces for toy piano including an experimental chamber opera which he premiered as a keynote performer at the Music as Play Festival in Italy in 2019. He has collaborated with Italian toy piano specialist Antonietta Loffredo many times and she has recorded his keyboard works with the Australian label, Wirripang, as well as performing his music in Italy. Paul was also a contributing writer to the ABC and triple j digital series, What is Music?