Canberra Symphony Orchestra
Conductor: Jessica Cottis
Soloist: James Morley
Llewellyn Hall
Thursday March 19, 2026
By Tony Magee
In a presentation where the overarching theme was friendship, Canberra Symphony Orchestra excelled in one the finest concerts I’ve heard from them.
Conductor Jessica Cottis was in full control, sweeping the musicians through the multifaceted program with precision.
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| Jessica Cottis conducts the CSO. Photo: Arianne Schlumpp |
Opening with Through Changing Landscape by Australian composer Alice Chance, tentative steps forward began with just flute, with other instruments gradually joining until the full orchestras was playing.
A solid brass foundation emerged, then high above a piccolo made its mark, with piano octaves below.
Pizzicato from the five doubles basses and then the cellos carried the piece further with two massive orchestral climaxes as the high points.
Inspired by a long train journey with changing scenery as the train progresses, it was a very happy piece.
One of the few happy aspects to Prokofiev’s last years is the friendship he enjoyed with the young cellist Mstislav Rostropovich, for which he composed the unusually titled Symphony-Concerto for cello and orchestra, Op.125.
Outstanding young cellist James Morley was the soloist and he delivered a spectacular performance of incredible insight, technique and depth of emotion.
Playing from memory, he delivered superb tone production and projection.
The opening Andante was in march tempo with a wonderful bass foundation. The following Allegro giusto brought forward furioso playing from Morley with dramatic interludes from the trombones and tuba in unison with timpani.
There followed an incredible cello cadenza where Morley was able to explore the full range of his instrument.
The closing Allegro marcato featured a wonderful and majestic fanfare from the horns underpinned by slow and deliberate pizzicato playing from the double basses.
At the conclusion of the work, the audience erupted in thunderous applause which just went on and on, and both Morley and conductor Cottis were called back again and again to take their bows.
Morley is studying at the ‘Hans Eisler’ School of Music in Berlin and has previously studied at the Sydney Conservatorium of Music and the ANU School Music, where he won Best Recital Award and the Audience Choice Award in the 2019 ANAM Concerto Competition, performing the Prokofiev Symphony-Concerto with the Tasmanian Symphony Orchestra.
He plays the ‘Ex-Robert Barrett’ cello made in 2004 by Rainer Beilharz.
The concert closed with a superb performance of The Enigma Variations by Sir Edward Elgar.
Elgar described how, on the evening of 21 October 1898, after a tiring day's teaching, he sat down at the piano and began to improvise various melodies in styles which reflected the character of some of his friends. These improvisations, expanded and orchestrated, became the Enigma Variations.
He is also quoted as saying that he would not explain the Enigma, “It’s ‘dark saying’ must be left unguessed, and I warn you that the connection between the Variations and the Theme is often of the slightest texture.”
Then, cryptically, “Through and over the whole set is another and larger theme which ‘goes’ but is not played…”
Elgar liked to tease his friends about guessing the Enigma.
In November 1899, Elgar was in conversation with Dorabella Penny, subject of the tenth variation. Elgar asked: “Haven’t you guessed it yet? Try again!.”
“Are you quite sure I know it?” “Quite.”
And on another occasion: “Well, I’m surprised. I thought you of all people would guess it.”
“Why me of all people?”
“That’s asking questions!”
Speaking with Troyte Griffith in 1923 - the subject of the seventh variation - Griffith asked, “Can I have one guess? Is it God Save the King?”
“No of course not, but it is so well known that it is extraordinary that no-one has spotted it.”
Is there actually a musical theme on which the variations are based? Most people assume so, but Elgar always referred to the subject matter as “it”, never tune or theme.
The famous violinist Yehudi Menuhin claimed to have solved the mystery in 1984, when he announced from the stage of Carnegie Hall, before conducting a performance of The Enigma Variations, that the solution was Rule Britannia. He later retracted this statement.
Canberra Symphony Orchestra filled Llewellyn Hall with a spectacular performance of the work. The third variation, Richard Baxter, was joyful. The fourth, William Meath Baker, was bold, featuring triple forte timpani.
After a timpani introduction, the sixth, Isabel Litton, continued with prominent brass. Troyte Griffith’s variation, number seven, featured a delightful clarinet opening.
The most famous of the variations is the ninth, Nimrod, dedicated to August Johannes Jaeger. It has been used countless times in television and film scores - from Monty Python to Dunkirk. The opening bars are a quote from the slow movement of Beethoven’s Pathetique piano sonata.
The tenth, Dorabella Penny, began with woodwinds and then a beautiful viola solo played superbly by Tor Frømyhr. Leader of the cello section, Patrick Suthers, opened the twelfth variation, Basil G. Nevinson, and his excellent playing was featured prominently throughout.
With the first variation being dedicated to the composer’s wife, Caroline Alice Elgar, the work came full circle with the Finale being Elgar himself.
So closed an absolutely superb concert from the Canberra Symphony Orchestra and one that I will remember with fondness for a long time.
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