To say Ray Chen has done well in recent years would be an understatement. As the winner of an impressive number of international violin competitions, Sony Classical very sensibly snapped him up, and he’s since released a number of excellent albums with them, as well as more recently with Deutsche Grammophon and Decca. Not bad for a local Brissie boy! This Queensland Symphony Orchestra concert served as a “welcome back” to Chen, and the audience certainly agreed – the applause kicked in as soon as Chen hit the stage in the second half.

Ray ChenRay Chen. Photo © Sophie Zhai

The first half of the concert began Chen-less with Mendelssohn’s Sinfonia No 10 in B Minor, although I’m more used to seeing it under the more specific name of String Symphony. The set of twelve string symphonies were all written by a barely-teenage Mendelssohn, but, like Mozart’s early music, sound like the work of a much more experienced composer. This is a slight work, but nonetheless was a decent appetiser before the heftier fare to follow. Erin Helyard’s conducting was clean and confident.

The concert continued with Bach’s Orchestral Suite No 4 in D...