Gillian Wills

How should a 10-day festival in tropical FNQ, with a line-up of 35 top musicians from Australia and across the world, begin?

To everyone’s surprise, the Australian Festival of Chamber Music, which opened on the weekend in Townsville, began with Festival Feelings, a meditation led by William Mabo, grandson of the legendary land rights campaigner Eddie Mabo.

While momentarily it felt awkward, the audience soon settled, the silence heightened then Mabo voiced a stunning introductory solo on didgeridoo. “That was listening to country,” he said.

With the Goldner Quartet retiring this year, its 28-year relationship with the festival is ending too. An appreciative audience, many returning year after year, delighted in the ensemble’s elegance and meticulous control in a thoughtful account of Schumann’s String Quartet in A major, supposedly a love letter to the composer’s future wife Clara.

Incidentally, in Concert Conversations hosted by former artistic director Piers Lane on day two, Goldner’s Dene Olding speculated that he and Irina Morozova, Dimity Hall and Julian Smiles had spent a year of their lives rehearsing and performing for this festival. They will be missed.

For the Guilty Pleasures segment – in which the participants choose a work they love – British baritone Roderick Williams, composer and viola player Brett Dean and pianist Donald Nicholson gave a memorable airing of Jacques Brel’s Ne Me Quitte Pas, airbrushed in a refreshing arrangement by Dean, which fortunately gives soupy sentiment a wide berth.

There are eight composers-in-focus, which is a terrific new development, although sadly no women are as yet fulfilling this role. Nevertheless, several of these artists are presenting their own music and this means that programming overall features new music.

Not everybody enjoyed the rather challenging evening concert – the Governor’s Gala: Angels, Demons and other Nasties, on the weekend. But no-one who heard Timothy Constable’s vibrant Last Shaman could doubt his sincerity and dedication. In unfolding the music, prompted by an aspect of Korean language, he danced energetically while executing wild rhythmic stretches across a battery of drums.

Similarly, in Dean’s gritty Voices of Angels, a chamber work scored for piano quintet like Schubert’s The Trout, the restless and evolving spiky, shimmering, dreamy or agitated terrain interrogates the premise that “angels are often unable to tell whether they move among the living or the dead”.

Explored through extreme string effects, violinist and AFCM artistic director Jack Liebeck with Dean on viola, Umberto Clerici on cello (also chief conductor of Queensland Symphony Orchestra), Kees Boesma on double bass and Lane on prepared piano gave a superbly synchronised cinematic reading.

Not everyone agreed about the merit of including such provocative sound worlds, but someone was enchanted during the concert because she drifted off into another world. Another admired the players’ artistry, if not what they played.

On the morning of day three this accepting and informed AFCM audience cultivated over almost three decades were treated to a luxurious spree of lyricism in St James Cathedral. With its kind acoustic, the space lifts the sound allowing it to travel into every nook and cranny.

For Brahms’ Trio for horn, violin and piano, Itamar Golan skilfully fired the composer’s quickdraw piano action, Ben Jacks projected an easeful glowing tone on French horn and American violinist Adam Barnett-Hart impressed by playing with an amazingly rich tone. Still, the slow movement’s unusually mournful narrative was eerily interrupted by the cathedral’s bell, which chimed through most of it.

There have been countless high-quality performances, far too many to mention here. If the Olympics awarded medals to worthy musicians then Liebeck, on this occasion flaunting a pair of blue suede shoes, cellist Julian Smiles and pianist Amandine Savary all deserved gold for their magnificent take on Ravel’s Piano Trio. It was world class. Sublime.

Day four saw a whale-watching tour in the line-up. It’s hard to contemplate another music festival where subscribers can marvel at breaching whales while on a cruise before disembarking at Magnetic Island (Yunbenun) for an al fresco brunch while being serenaded by viola player Katie Yap performing an Improvisation on Folk Songs, Liebeck executing J.S. Bach’s much-loved Partita no 2 in D minor and oboist Shefali Pryor’s playing three Etudes by Gilles Silvestrini.

For day six, cellist Christian-Pierre la Marca has curated a charming and pertinent event called Wonderful World – An Orchestral Experience. Described by la Marca as a “humanistic ode to nature”, 18 relevant and easy-listening pieces by Faure, Dvorak, Saint-Saens, Mancini and Einaudi will be aired. All dedicated to saving the planet. La Marca believes that music has the ability to awaken consciences.

The AFCM After Party at the Ardo Rooftop from 3pm on August 4 will feature repertoire by Gershwin and Ralph Vaughan Williams.

Gillian Wills travelled to Townsville as a guest of the Australian Festival of Chamber Music, which ends August 4.

afcm.com.au

This article is republished from InReview under a Creative Commons licence. Read the original article.

InReview is an open access, non-profit arts and culture journalism project. Readers can support our work with a donation. Subscribe to InReview’s free weekly newsletter here.