By Ben Nielsen
On the back of a season that celebrated their 75th anniversary, The Adelaide Symphony Orchestra begins 2012 with the ever popular Santos Symphony under the Stars- arguably their biggest event of the year.
Directed by guest conductor Marc Taddei, the evening featured special guest soprano Antoinette Halloran, star of Australian stage and screen.
The Symphony under the Stars is a testament to the Adelaide Symphony Orchestra and their endeavour to make classical music accessible. Thousands gathered in Elder Park for an evening of free alfresco entertainment, despite the gruelling temperatures.
The program was structured to appeal to the diversity of audience members; it included a variety of well known pieces such as a West Side Story medley (Bernstein arr. Mason) and Fantasia on ‘Greensleeves’ (Vaughan Williams); to more obscure symphonic tunes such as Rimsky-Korsakov’s Capriccio Espagnol.
Soloist Antoinette Halloran stunned the audience with her musical aptitude with a selection of operatic pieces by Dvořák and Puccini. In the second half, Halloran seamlessly navigated through a whole other genre, with a collection of well-known music theatre songs such as The Sound of Music by Rodgers and Arlen’s Over the Rainbow.
The traditional visual and aural spectacular concluded the evening- fireworks and canons accompanied by the triumphant sounds of Tchaikovsky’s 1812 Overture.
The orchestra’s musical capabilities were still perceptible in the alfresco setting. Fine musicianship, precision and dynamic contrast were as equally astounding without the acoustics of an auditorium.
The Symphony under the Stars provides an opportunity to gasp, hum, tap, clap or cheer; an experience unparalleled to that had within the confines and etiquette of a concert hall. The sounds of enjoyment emanating from the audience throughout the performance were a declaration of the success of Symphony under the Stars; which is now considered a South Australian institution.
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