It was like a scene from The Vicar of Dibley. The musicians playing French composer Olivier Messiaen’s work The Quartet for the End of Time, were unexpectedly interrupted by the peeling of church bells in St James’ Anglican Cathedral in Townsville.

This intimate concert was a highly anticipated event in the program of Townsville’s annual Australian Festival of Chamber Music (AFCM). The cathedral was full, renowned British composer and musicologist Stephen Johnson had given a passionate introduction to the piece which was almost a sermon. And, God love him, he could have been a character in The Vicar of Dibley himself and his talk was smattered with references to scripture.

Mind you that’s as it should be considering Messiaen’s work is also biblically inspired and was written in a prison camp in World War Two. It’s a famous piece with an incredible origin story and hearing it played reverently in the quietude of the cathedral was quite something. It’s events such as this that people travel north to hear every year.

Then came the bells. Someone forgot to turn the timer off and they started chiming out their midday chorus. Luckily that happened in a break between movements, a longer than expect break actually. There was some scrambling behind the scenes to stop them and then the concert proceeded and nobody actually minded.

We were, after all, in a church and bells kind of go with the experience.

I spent the opening weekend of the festival in Townsville. The event runs from July 28 until August 6 so you could, ostensibly, still make it if you dropped everything. Or of you happened to be in Townsville anyway.

But more to the point, pencil it in for next year because it is now a popular event on the Australian arts calendar each year. It has a burgeoning and dedicated following and just happens to be in Queensland.

In the northern hemisphere birds fly south in the winter. In the Antipodes chamber music fans flock north, away from the chilly environs of Adelaide, Melbourne and Sydney in particular.

Townsville in winter is, what’s the word? Balmy. Not Barmy.

The music is the attraction of course but the siren lure of North Queensland’s winter is not to be underestimated. It’s a music festival not a weather festival but conversations about the weather are common and sitting outside in the AFCM Festival Garden in the surrounds of the Townsville Civic Theatre on a pleasant moonlit night is a treat.

The entertainment the night I attended (entertainment begins at 4pm daily during the AFCM) was the fantastic 1RAR army band which played jazz for the assembled throng.

I attended an hour-long concert featuring works by Satie and others and then enjoyed an hour or so in the Festival Garden before the big event – Saturday night’s Governor’s Gala – Romance isn’t Dead, Yet …. The Governor of Queensland, Dr Jeannette Young in attendance with her husband, Professor Graeme Nimmo. It was a very vice-regal night actually because the Governor General of Australia, General David Hurley, was also there with his wife Linda, dedicated chamber music fans one and all.

We were all treated to an evening of gorgeous music by Richard Wagner Camille Saint-Saens, Richard Strauss and others played by leading musicians including the festival’s artistic director, British violinist Jack Liebeck. He works himself pretty hard at the AFCM and would probably testify that Townsville’s winter was warmer than London’s summer where he had recently come from.

This is Liebeck’s second year in the job and he gathered around 40 musicians from Australia and abroad for his program which features 34 concerts and special events this year.

You don’t have to be a chamber music tragic to attend. Actually, it’s the perfect introduction to chamber music and the talks and contextualizing of the music by various speakers makes the event different and special.

Sometimes you wish classical musicians would talk more about what they are playing and why. With people such as Stephen Johnson on hand this year there’s plenty of chat and its very helpful.

This is Liebeck’s innovation.

“After talking to audiences last year, I realized that our audience doesn’t just want to experience music in a passive way,” Liebeck says, “They want to understand on a deeper level which is why I invited the brilliant British musicologist, composer and presenter Stephen Johnson to Townsville this year.”

And judging from the reception Johnson has had so far, he should expect to be invited back.

The Australian line up this year features Queensland’s own didgeridoo superstar William Barton, the Goldner String Quartet who are festival regulars, harpsichordist Donald Nicholson, British’s viola player Sally Beamish and many more. And Liebeck’s innovative Guilty Pleasures series is back too featuring music which classical musicians might sometimes not be expect to play.

The events are spread across half a dozen venues with Townsville Civic Theatre the hub. The Ville Resort-Casino where many guests were staying (including me) is another venue and on Sunday night hosted the Sensational Sunday concert. It was interesting to watch the chamber music crowd mixing with the casino-goers in the foyer, that’s for sure.

My wife is from Townsville so I’m familiar with the city but we were never in the city at the right time for the AFCM. That has now been remedied. I had a lovely weekend (despite the lurgi that accompanied me from Brisbane) although wouldn’t have minded being there this weekend either. For the music. And the football.

Because the North Queensland Cowboys are playing the Brisbane Broncos at Townsville’s brilliant and newish stadium. That’s part of the culture of Townsville too. It’s a multilayered city, an army town, a tourist destination … it has a fine university culture with James Cook University and in fact it was a former Vice-Chancellor, Professor Ray Golding, who inaugurated the AFCM three decades ago with founding artistic director Theodore Kucher.

Well done those men. And go Cowboys.

afcm.com.au