The fallout continues for the Melbourne Symphony Orchestra. A year ago, its management cancelled a concert by the pianist Jayson Gillham because of comments he made from the stage condemning the targeting of journalists in Gaza. Despite changes in management, Gillham’s case is still set to go to court – and the MSO remains a target for protest.
This was the second ever Prom for the MSO, and twice it was brought to a halt by shouts from the balcony, where the Jewish Artists for Palestine group unfurled banners. The first time, the conductor Jaime Martín went off stage, then returned and started from the top; the second, he immediately resumed where they had left off. If anything it felt a little unfair that the piece disrupted should have been by Haunted Hills by the Australian composer Margaret Sutherland. With loping, almost balletic melodies dragging the ominous weight of tuba and other brass, this muscular 1950 tone poem evokes both the unchanging landscape and what Sutherland called the betrayal of Indigenous people by settlers. Her music still awaits an undisrupted Proms premiere.
