The QSO boomed last night, with the help of James O’Donnell LVO KCSG (who dusted off the Concert Hall organ and showed us what it can do.

The programme fascinated, and the audience responded to it with gusto. Some audience members were responding like three-year-olds who’d been given their favourite toy. Organs inspire serious dedication.

Jongen’s “Symphonie concertante for Organ and Orchestra, Op. 81” enthrals. Commissioned for a department store in Philadelphia, USA, in the 1920s, the intention must have been to inspire awe and loosen purses. It certainly made one stand back and gape.  With its interesting origins, the piece is now regarded as one of the greatest 20th-century works for organ and orchestra.

The Brisbane organ, played by James O’Donnell, has 6,566 handmade pipes, 5000 more than the organ in that US department store. James O’Donnell, Professor of Organ at Yale, and previously Organist and Master of the Choristers at Westminster Abbey for decades, sat above the orchestra, his back majestically to us all as we, together, looked up to this duplicate orchestra arising from so many pipes. And below was the QSO giving the organ a run for its money.

The orchestra and organ melded so well, it was sometimes difficult to tell which sound was provided by the organ and which by a player in the orchestra. I can see the organ in the concert hall being incorporated into QSO performances more often.

This powerful piece was followed by Australian composer Harry Sdraulig’s “Colourscapes”. After that big, bossy booming symphonie, Colourscapes was a palette cleanser. It was light and enticing and enchanting. Harry was in the audience. Look out for his other compositions. Beautiful work.

Saint-Saens’ “Symphony No. 3 in C minor, Op. 78 (Organ Symphony) followed. A familiar piece, it built on the Colourscapes, lightly entertaining us as it built to the organ’s chords reverberating backdrop to the QSO.

Despite the performance being billed as “The Royal Organist”, James O’Donnell and his music did not dominate. He played his impressive instrument with the orchestra. There was no booming church music filling the concert hall. Rather, there was full-bodied orchestra music played with gusto, of which the organ played its equal part. That subtlety may be O’Donnell’s great contribution.

The orchestra and audience rose from their seats with smiles and a spring in their step. Today’s performance at 11.30 am includes, in addition, a Toccata and Fugue in D minor, BWV 565 by Bach. If you are quick, you may make it.

ABC Classics was recording, so if you missed out, you’ll be able to hear it at a later date.

Book at: https://qso.com.au/events/2025/maestro-evenings/the-royal-organist

Kerry McGovern