12 February 2026
Review: Fire & Fantasy
by Mark Wilson, 2026 Media and Communication Fellow
An oppressively muggy Wednesday soon turned into a chilled, rainy evening—quintessential Melbourne weather—as the audience gathered in the iconic concrete amphitheatre of the Sidney Myer Music Bowl. The AYO Flagship Orchestra, led by German conductor Christian Reif, were about to take the stage for an exhilarating performance of ‘Fire and Fantasy’.
Before the AYO’s main program, audiences were treated to a performance by the talented musicians of the Victorian State Youth Brass Band (VSYBB). Playing from the upper side balcony of the Music Bowl, their program included tender chorales, spirited marches, and toe-tapping jazzy tunes, complete with improvised solos that garnered applause from the ensemble and audience alike. The VSYBB is open to brass and percussion musicians up to the age of 25 and provides invaluable development and performance opportunities. The burnished sounds of the VSYBB ‘warmed’ the audience up, as concert presenter Dr Megan Burslem, a current ABC Classic presenter and alumna of the AYO’s Media and Communication program (formerly Words about Music), took to the stage to introduce the AYO Flagship Orchestra and their conductor Christian Reif.
‘Fire and Fantasy’ began with the frigid stylings of Daniel Nelson’s Steampunk Blizzard. Opening with a motoric groove in the low brass and strings, nicely complemented by timpanist Matthew Arnold, Steampunk Blizzard conjured up a fantastical snowstorm of sound. Whirling woodwind lines were handled virtuosically, painting an image of Antarctic winds, as the strings shimmered like ice crystals. Reif deftly led the orchestra through irregular rhythms and time signature shifts—the jagged rhythms eliciting smiles and headbanging from the double bass section. Nelson’s sub-zero work was an apt opener, as the whirling wind and rain continued to batter the roof of the Music Bowl.
As the stage lights changed into a deep, midnight blue, the orchestra launched into the opening bars of Anna Clyne’s This Midnight Hour. Clyne’s music is a collage of styles, packed to the brim with novel ideas and sounds. A delightfully mischievous waltz evokes the sound of an accordion, as the violas play a quarter-tone apart from each other, while acrobatic woodwind playing tumbles into a fiendish bacchanal. Towards the close, trumpeters Toby Rands and Zachary Allan depart from their chairs to either sides of the stage, as they play an antiphonal and mourning duet across the orchestra. It’s fantastical music and drew roars of approval from the audience.
It’s fantastical music and drew roars of approval from the audience.
The final piece before interval, a suite of Nobuo Uemetsu’s music from the popular video game Final Fantasy IX, demonstrates the AYO’s innovative programming going into 2026. Video game music has historically been excluded from ‘main-stage’ concerts, instead being relegated to genre-specific shows. On Wednesday evening, Uemetsu’s exhilarating score is rubbing shoulders with Stravinsky. 2026 Media and Communication Fellow, Paul Nicolaou, recently published a deep dive into this programming decision, read more here.
A pastoral opening in the strings was coloured by mysterious chromatic figures in the winds, evoking the beginning of a grand adventure. A snare drum boisterously announced a change in mood, as trumpeter Matthew Hyam led the brass and percussion in a rousing march. The horns (Henry Eames, Jude Austen Kaupe, Sarah Bernard, Lucy Smith, and Thomas Ferreira-Montague) were the heroes of this fantastical adventure, their rich tone and soaring lines transporting the audience into the mystical and digital land of Final Fantasy IX. The music at times was distinctly Hollywood, stabbing strings evoking the ‘Psycho’ stylings of Bernard Herrmann during a battle sequence. This music deserves to be celebrated on the concert stage, just as the AYO flagship and Christian Reif celebrated it on Wednesday night.
Following interval, Megan Burslem returned to the stage to prepare the audience for the gargantuan sounds of Stravinsky. Burslem took this time to interview AYO Principal Cellist James Monro, discussing the rehearsal process and the experience of working within the AYO Flagship Orchestra. Reif then returned to the stage, as the orchestra was lit up in a golden glow for a sublimely beautiful performance of Stravinsky’s 1945 suite The Firebird.
Basses seemed to emerge out of nothingness, as murmuring bassoon and muted trumpets added to the mystery of the introduction. The music soon explodes out into the nail-bitingly virtuosic ‘Firebird Variations’. A mainstay in any woodwind audition list, this section featured swooping lines in the clarinet, piccolo, and flute, expertly handled by Angus Hall, Laura Dickie, and Nathan Rinaldy respectively. The music flitted between episodes of serenity and frenzy, led always by the professional hand of Reif. A moment of stillness was shattered by the iconic orchestral stab of the ‘Infernal Dance’—gasps of surprise were heard throughout the audience—as the orchestra got to flex their virtuosity in this jaggedly rhythmic section. The violence soon gave way to the sombre atmosphere of the ‘Lullaby’, mournful bassoon lines (Arky Vogt) complemented by a sighing oboe (Alex Tsang). A drawn out descent of tremolo strings gave way to another iconic moment, as principal horn, Henry Eames, sung across the orchestra in a sublime musical sunrise. As the orchestra crescendoed, a shimmering tutti finale with resplendent strings, proud timpani, ringing triangle and glowing brass bought the audience to their feet. The Firebird was indeed bought back to life with this glorious performance by the AYO Flagship Orchestra and their conductor Christian Reif.
The AYO Flagship bought both fire and fantasy in the first of their two main-stage concerts for the year. As the rain and wind continued to swirl around the Sidney Myer Music Bowl, audiences left warmed by the magical music-making of Australia’s brightest young classical musicians.
AYO Flagship performed Fire and Fantasy at the Sidney Myer Music Bowl on Wednesday 11 February 2026. Presented by Melbourne Symphony Orchestra