Just as there are multiple ways to be a musician, there are many reasons for favouring particular music, as the audience learned during this music-for-all Queensland Symphony Orchestra event, one of Brisbane Festival’s entertaining freebies. Jenny Woodward, veteran weather reporter, set the right tone as an accomplished presenter who encouraged those chosen to talk about the programmed pieces of music they love.

Guy Noble and the Queensland Symphony Orchestra. Photo supplied

And, if ambient noise sometimes intruded, such as nesting bird calls during Brahms’ tempo-shifting, Hungarian Dance No 5 in G Minor (chosen by Andrea Tomas) or the whup-whup-whup of a passing helicopter in the second movement of Dvořák’s New World Symphony (selected by Akiko Hansen), that’s all part and parcel of the charms of an alfresco evening at the Riverstage, a stone’s throw from the vividly illuminated Brisbane River.

Molly St John Mosse’s pick – a keen contributor to a weekly slam poet event at the Zoo in which attendees create poetry punctuated by dinosaur references – was the main theme from Jurassic Park by film composer John Williams. The breezy brass-stoked rendering suited the occasion, the children present and the amp-enhanced orchestra.

Incidentally, the...