ICO 2026 Season – Sundays @ 1pm

Sunday 13 September 1.00pm – Indooroopilly State High School

Welcome to our second ICO Sundays @ 1pm concert for 2026. We hope you have enjoyed a symphony of memorable moments this year.

Feel the magic of the flute and all the colours it brings to our imaginations. Explore dark and passionate tones with Reinecke’s Ballade; be dazzled by the virtuosity of Monti’s Czardas; and simply enjoy its many sparkling and songful sounds all throughout Faure’s Masques and Bergamasques and Debussy’s Arabesques.

Program

Beethoven – Leonore Overture No. 1

Reinecke – Ballade (with Nathan Smith)

Monti – Czardas (with Nathan Smith)

INTERVAL

Faure – Masques et Bergamasques Suite

Debussy arr. Mouton – Arabesque No. 1

Bruckner – Three Pieces for Orchestra

Greta Hunter – ICO Conductor

Greta Hunter is a Brisbane based conductor and flute specialist. She holds a Bachelor of Music (BMus(hons)) from the University of Queensland, majoring in flute performance, and currently studies Orchestral Conducting with the Cardiff International Academy of Conducting and Mark Shapiro (The Julliard School). 

Greta holds the position of conductor with the Indooroopilly Chamber Orchestra (ICO), where she connects players to great orchestral works most often from the 18th – 20th centuries. With ICO, Greta creates valuable opportunities for outstanding young musicians to rehearse and perform concertos and solo works with a full orchestra. She is equally at home with choral music and is currently the musical director of Songshine Choir. Greta also works with school and community youth ensembles as well as being regularly invited to guest conduct other instrumental and vocal ensembles around Brisbane.

Greta is a flute specialist tutor at St Peter’s Lutheran College (Indooroopilly) and Westside Christian College. She is passionate about developing technique and musicianship and incorporates a multidisciplinary approach to her teaching, where she utilises and combines flute pedagogy with vocal pedagogy. Greta incorporates this approach to develop technique and musicianship for flutists and choristers alike and has seen significant positive benefits across both disciplines.

Greta is driven by the underlying philosophy that everyone deserves to experience meaningful music making. Through her work as both a conductor and flute specialist tutor, Greta guides people to explore the possibilities of expression through music and ultimately to engage with music in a deeper and more meaningful way.

Nathan Smith – Flute Soloist

Nathan Smith is an animated, emerging flautist from Brisbane, Australia. He is completing his undergraduate studies under the guidance of Associate Professor Tim Munro and Alison Mitchell at the Queensland Conservatorium Griffith University. During his studies, he has explored projects with the Queensland Ballet and LA Philharmonic Wind Quintet and appeared as a soloist with the Conservatorium String Orchestra. Nathan was appointed Section Principal Flute of the Queensland Youth Symphony in 2024, appearing as a featured soloist with the orchestra in 2025.

His artistic development has been supported by the James Carson Memorial Scholarship and Robert S. Alva Memorial Award, and he has performed in masterclasses for Denis Bouriakov, Kim Falconer, and Sonia Croucher. Nathan is passionately engaged in freelancing throughout Brisbane’s performing arts landscape, appearing as a casual musician with the Queensland Symphony Orchestra, Camerata – Queensland’s Chamber Orchestra, Opera Queensland, Ensemble Q, and in guest principal positions with the Brisbane Philharmonic Orchestra, Viva la Musica, Redcliffe Musical Theatre, and Shine Performing Arts.

Program Notes

Ludwig van Beethoven (1770 – 1827)

Leonore Overture No. 1, Op.138

Beethoven’s Leonore Overture No. 1 is the most misunderstood of the four overtures he composed for his opera Fidelio. Its number is a historical misnomer; it was not his first attempt, but actually his third, composed in 1807 for a planned performance of the opera in Prague that never materialized. After finding his monumental Leonore Overture No. 3 too dramatically overwhelming to serve as a curtain-raiser, Beethoven experimented with a different approach. This overture is noticeably lighter and more lyrical than its famous predecessor. While it shares the same basic thematic material, including a sorrowful introduction based on the prisoner Florestan’s aria, it unfolds more like the first movement of a classical symphony than a programmatic drama. Most significantly, it omits the famous offstage trumpet call, removing the literal depiction of rescue. A fascinating and beautifully crafted work, the Leonore Overture No. 1 offers a rare glimpse into Beethoven’s creative process as he searched for the perfect beginning to his beloved opera.

Program notes by: https://sheetmusicinternational.com/program-notes/beethoven-ludwig-van-1770-1827-overtures-lenora-1-op138-379

Carl Reinecke (1824-1910)

Ballade in D minor, Op. 288

Composed in 1908 when Reinecke was 84-years-old, this work was one of his final compositions and serves as a “swan song” of late Romanticism. It was originally written for flute and orchestra, but also frequently performed with piano reduction. The piece is deeply romantic, characterised by a mysterious, dramatic, and at times sinister narrative atmosphere that requires intense expression from the soloist.

While in one continuous movement, the Ballade is divided into three distinct, contrasting sections: Adagio (D minor) opens with a haunting, melancholic melody in the flute, accompanied by swelling, dense orchestral or piano textures. Allegro (Modulating) is a faster, lighter, scherzo-like section that showcases the technical agility of the flutist with staccato passages and double-tonguing. Returning to Adagio/Allegro (D major), the initial dramatic atmosphere returns briefly before shifting to a more optimistic, sweet, and calm conclusion in D major. It is considered one of the major works in the flute repertoire, highlighting Reinecke’s conservative, Mendelssohnian style that emphasises clarity of form alongside emotional depth.

Program Notes by: https://www.google.com/search

Vittorio Monti (1868–1922)

Czárdás

Composed in 1904, Czárdás is the most famous composition by Italian composer, violinist, and conductor, Vittorio Monti. Originally written for violin, mandolin, and piano, this rhapsodic concert piece is heavily influenced by Hungarian folk music. While it remains a staples showpiece for violinists, the work’s immense popularity and energetic style have led to numerous transcriptions, making it a favourite virtuosic showpiece for flute players and ensembles.

The piece is a csárdás, a traditional Hungarian dance characterised by a dramatic contrast in tempos, starting with a slow, melancholic introduction and accelerating into a rapid, frantic whirl. The piece is structured in seven distinct sections, alternating between slow and fast tempos. The Largo sections showcase the flute’s expressive, cantabile capability, often requiring intense emotion and romantic rubato. The Allegro sections demand high technical virtuosity, featuring rapid passage work, fiery melodies, and syncopated rhythms that mirror the style of Hungarian gypsy music.

Program notes by: https://www.google.com/search

Gabriel Fauré (1845 – 1924)

Masques et Bergamasques Suite, Op.112

Towards the end of his life, Gabriel Fauré struggled with increasing frailty and deafness. In fact, sounds had become seriously distorted, with high and low notes “sounding painfully out of tune.” When Prince Albert I of Monaco approached Fauré in 1918 to commission a short dramatic work for the Monte Carlo theater, the composer was simply not interested. It took the intervention of Camille Saint-Saëns—who had actually suggested the commission to Prince Albert in the first place—for Fauré to properly engage.

In collaboration with theater director Raoul Gunsbourg and the librettist René Fauchois, Fauré was to provide the music for a brief divertissement performed at the Monté Carlo theater. The program of the Divertissement, later to become known as “Masques et Bergamasques” reads, “The story of Masques is very simple. The characters Harlequin, Gilles and Colombine, whose task is usually to amuse the aristocratic audience, take their turn at being spectators at a ‘fête galante’ on the island of Cythera. The lords and ladies, who as a rule applaud their efforts, now unwittingly provide them with entertainment by their coquettish behavior.”

Instead of composing new music for just a few performances, Fauré reworked and expanded on this 1902 Fête Galante by linking together previously composed songs, instrumental and choral pieces. The Monté Carlo production was a huge success, and it soon made its way to the Opéra-Comique in Paris. Over the next thirty years it was performed more than 100 times, and puzzled scholars suggest, “It is paradoxical that Fauré’s most frequently performed stage work is also his least ambitious.” In the event, the Monté Carlo entertainment featured eight pieces, but in order to bring his music to a wider audience, Fauré fashioned an orchestral suite in four movements that he published as Masques et Bergamasques, Op. 112. The suite premiered at a Paris Conservatory concert on 16 November 1919, and it became one of Fauré’s most popular works.

Program notes by: https://interlude.hk/faure-suite-bergamasques-premiered-today-1919/

Claude Debussy (1862 – 1918)

Arabesques No. 1 & 2 (arr. Mouton)

Claude Debussy composed two arabesques between 1886 and 1891, making them among his earliest works and examples of impressionistic music. Impressionism was a short period of music around the late 19th and early 20th centuries focusing on the mood and atmosphere of a subject rather than its details. The term arabesque is used to describe a type of design in architecture and paintings; it features complex, interwoven lines that create spiral-like designs. In music an arabesque often refers to compositional devices such as counterpoint or rapidly changing harmonies that intertwine with one another. In this arabesque Debussy uses triplets, polyrhythms, and alternation between the hands to create this spiralling, ornamental effect. In addition, Debussy enhances the music with unusual chord combinations, ambiguous tonalities, and unresolved chords. Hubert Mouton’s 1937 arrangement for orchestra enhances the delicate, atmospheric nature of the piano originals by utilising woodwind colours, harp, and strings to emphasise the harp-like, fluid nature of the piano parts.

Program notes by: https://nassauchurch.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/11/2020-11-19-Notes.pdf

Anton Bruckner (1824 – 1896)

Three Pieces for Orchestra, WAB 97

The Three Pieces for Orchestra were composed in 1862, a pivotal year when Bruckner was studying composition under Otto Kitzler in Linz. At this time, Bruckner was nearly 40 years old, yet he considered himself a student, seeking to master modern orchestral techniques under Kitzler’s guidance—specifically the dramatic, harmonic innovations of Wagner and Liszt.

The three pieces are brief, charming, and melodic movements, representing a very early, pre-symphonic stage in Bruckner’s development. They provide a fascinating contrast to the massive, sprawling Brucknerian “cathedrals of sound” that he would compose later in life.

The Moderato (E-flat major) is a short three-part form with a brief coda. It displays a straightforward melodic style. The Andante (E minor) is another three-part structure featuring a more melancholic, lyrical tone. Finally, the Moderato con moto (F major) is a lively three-part piece that highlights Bruckner’s capability for brighter, faster-paced instrumentation.

Program notes by: https://www.google.com/search

Indooroopilly Chamber Orchestra

Flute

James Wigan

Sarah Rhodes

Kymberly Jones

Lila Baylis

Clarinet

Graham Evans

Jane Enchelmaier

Bassoon

Layni Cameron

Horn

Juliet McCreath

Sandie Faulkner

Trumpet

Caitlin Reilly

Timpani and Percussion

Janine Kesting