Wonderful Playing

The Queensland Performing Arts Centre in Brisbane is dedicated to bringing out the world's best orchestras, dancers and actors. Brisbane audiences enjoyed Joshua Bell and The Academy of St Martin in the Fields and the London Philharmonic a couple of years ago, an exclusive season by the Ballet Nacional de Cuba has just finished and on Sunday [2 October 2011], the Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra blazed through a program of evergreen classics with world-acclaimed conductor Christoph Eschenbach. It was the first time the VPO have performed in Brisbane.

Once conducted by Gustav Mahler, the VPO has a long, garlanded history stretching back a hundred and seventy years, a gilded reputation for superb interpretation of Viennese repertoire and a deluxe string section...