Music review: Festival Farewell, Australian Festival of Chamber Music, Townsville Civic Theatre

The Australian Festival of Chamber Music (AFCM) started the Festival with glowing tributes to retiring quartet-in-residence, the Goldner String Quartet, which has been a major part of AFCM since the early 90s. After 30 years together as one of Australia finest chamber ensembles, the Quartet members have decided to call it a day. The Festival Farewell was their swansong to the AFCM as a quartet, although we may well see them back as individual musicians in the future. Understandably, it was a much-anticipated event.  

After so much glorious music, with a delightful and eclectic range of concerts from the Baroque and Romantics through to the 20th century and world premieres, the Festival Farewell could have been anticlimactic. But Artistic Director, Jack Liebeck, chose a thoughtful program that included some surprising elements, and even managed to bring almost all of the musicians onstage for the finale.  

The concert offered a fitting Indigenous introduction by acclaimed composer and didgeridoo player, the ever-popular William Barton. ‘Memories of Green upon the Blue Fields of the Ocean’ was commissioned in 2017 by Australian flautist Maddilyn Goodwin for a concert series she created in Antwerp, demonstrating Barton’s reflections and memories of Country.  

It commenced with a magical and atmospheric opening to set the scene, as cellist Umberto Clerici, violinists Adam Barnett-Hart and Benjamin Roskams, violist Katie Yap and flautist Anna Rabinowicz walked slowly onto the stage. They started to play as they moved, the musical style reflecting the sonority of the Australian bush. Barton entered at the same time through the auditorium, his sung intonation as haunting as it was mystical. Taking his place centre stage, he took up his didgeridoo alongside his colleagues. The mood was already set with the auditorium breathless and still.  

The 15-minute composition is a lush and lyrical work, the finely crafted didgeridoo rhythms from Barton evoking the sounds of the bush through distinctive flora and fauna imagery. Rabinowicz’s flute soared ethereally while the mix of fast bowings hitting wood and pizzicato strings added a sense of urgency to the work. It was masterfully played.     

‘A Bird over Jerusalem’ is an extraordinary work composed by Ruth Schonthal in 1992 at a difficult time of conflict between Israeli and Palestine. It was a timely and equally relevant work for today about the horrors of war. The premise is that of a small humanised bird, delivered convincingly by flautist Rabinowicz, flying above the human destruction below. The flute took on many moods, ranging from plaintive laments and sadness to erratic sharp piercing notes of danger and happier Jewish dance music, in a thoughtful reading.

Meanwhile, pianist Itamar Golan took on the monumental task of representing the noises of conflict. He crashed dark notes on the keyboard, plucked piano strings within the body of the piano, hit a range of cymbals and digitally operated the incessant sounds of machine gun fire. He managed this extraordinarily well and with great passion and attention to detail. Moments of poignancy included faint strains of the Jewish national anthem and other laments being eclipsed by the rattle of gunfire. An impressive and unsettling work, very well-delivered. 

As this was to be a celebratory Festival Farewell, it was pleasant to end the first half with some light-hearted and joyous Mendelssohn. The ‘String Symphony No.1 in C major’ is a truly happy work full of beautiful string rhythms and melodies, the tunes being passed from section to section with alacrity.   

Read: Concert review: Wonderful World, Townsville Civic Theatre

Led by violinist Alexandra Raikhlina, the symphony was taken at an energetic and brisk pace in the opening Allegro movement, with excellent sound balance. The slower Andante movement produced some fine pizzicato playing, while the final Allegro commenced with fierce playing from the cellos, taken up by violins and violas.     

Jacques Ibert’s ‘Trois pièces brèves’ for woodwind is a lively and melodic work that showed off Rabinowicz’s flute, Shefali Pryor’s oboe, Julian Bliss’ clarinet, Jackie Newcombe’s bassoon and Ben Jacks’ French horn to great effect. The tune was passed from instrument to instrument in a lyrical narrative that was as charming as it was expertly played.        

The final program choice was the Goldner String Quartet’s presentation of Tchaikovsky’s glorious ‘String Quartet No.1’ in D major, Op.11, a work that must be intrinsic to their repertoire. The Moderato movement started gently and quietly with a distinctive Slavic feel to the sonority and a marvellous colourful palette in its delivery. Measured and precise, the work swings back and forth from lush legato to rapid celerity. The soft beginning of the Andante, with its melodic folk tune was played sweetly and emotionally, the finest of pianissimo phrasing from Dene Olding’s violin. The Scherzo was suitably energetic and fast while the Finale: Allegro was jauntily played with excitement and a ferocious intensity.   

This was an expert reading of the work, delivered by masters of their trade in a very fine final performance by the Goldner String Quartet that was as sad as it was celebratory. We shall miss them. 

Read: Music review: Australian Festival of Chamber Music, various Townsville venues 

To round off the occasion, the romantic musician in Liebeck chose Cole Porter’s classic song ‘Ev’ry Time We Say Goodbye’. He gathered the entire ensemble of Festival musicians, who played the song alongside baritone Roderick William’s inimitable presentation and fine singing skills. It was good fun and joyous, though the Goldners, who had been treated to such a warm reception and a standing ovation after the Tchaikovsky, seemed somewhat overawed and not a little tearful. The loyal festival goers meanwhile came out on an obvious high that made this a great finale to the AFCM for 2024.     

The Australian Festival of Chamber Music took place 26 July to 4 August 2024.