Musica Viva. Adelaide Town Hall. 25 Jun 2026
The Doric String Quartet’s Adelaide concert for Musica Viva has been eagerly anticipated given the rave reviews they have received so far on their Australian tour, and this concert was of special interest as the quartet is touring with hometown favourite, clarinettist Lloyd Van’t Hoff.
Their choices for the program—Benjamin Britten’s Three Divertimenti for String Quartet, Thomas Adès’s Alchymia and Beethoven’s first Razumovsky Quartet—explore the endless possibilities of the quartet form, augmented in the case of Alchymia by the inclusion of the basset clarinet.
The concert opened with Britten’s Three Divertimenti of 1936, an early work, not published until after his death, in which he was exploring the quartet form and developing his own musical language. The first of the three elements, March, does not start with an obvious march-like rhythm but later settles into a jaunty stride. It’s a light-hearted and rather witty piece that challenges the formality of the traditional march.
The second, Waltz, is another experiment, this time with the waltz rhythm, in which pizzicato in the cello set the pace. There are moments of lilting sweetness alternating with sudden changes in dynamics. The final piece, the energetic and more intense Burlesque, is characterised by rapid flurries of notes, varied use of pizzicato and some discordant passages.
What became clear from the Doric’s playing was not only their outstanding technical prowess but their ability to turn Britten’s enigmatic, exploratory score into a fully resolved whole.
For the performance of celebrated British composer Thomas Adès’s Alchymia (2021), the quartet was joined by the Elder Conservatorium’s head of woodwind, clarinettist Lloyd Van’t Hoff, on basset clarinet. This instrument is longer than the commonly used B flat clarinet, with additional keys to produce lower notes and a mellower tone.
Adès’s magical work is in four movements, and as the title Alchymia suggests, each movement represents a transmutation of musical ideas which mostly emanate from Elizabethan London.
The first movement, A Sea-Change (…Those Are Pearls…), refers to Ariel’s song in Shakespeare’s The Tempest. It opens with a slow, high-pitched clarinet tune which is repeated over a quiet, motoric pizzicato that sounds like a ticking clock, before becoming unsettled and agitated, returning to the opening theme and finishing softly.
The second movement, The Woods So Wild, draws on William Byrd’s keyboard transcription of a popular Tudor song. Rather than simply transcribing Byrd’s music, Adès’s version captures the golden sounds of the woods, with the twinkling strings and the virtuosic clarinet suggesting the tuneful chirping and warbling of birds of all kinds.
The third movement, Lachrymae, refers to a poem by the seminal composer for the lute, John Dowland. The music is quiet and bittersweet, and the strings intertwine with a slowly developing clarinet melody. A crescendo emerges and then the music returns to its quiet and intensely beautiful solemnity.
The final movement, Divisions on a Lute-song: Wedekind’s Round, is a transmutation of German playwright and satirical song-writer Frank Wedekind’s (1864-1916) Lute Song in which the clarinet takes the role of the lute and imitates the sound of a barrel organ. The music begins with an ironically humorous passage, and the gorgeous, swirling tone of the basset clarinet suggests a singing voice. The clarinet ranges from the lowest to the highest notes it can produce, there are frequent changes of mood, with discordant and more strident passages, and the piece ends quietly and gently.
Thomas Adès’s Alchymia is a unique and wondrous composition.
Beethoven’s String Quartet in F Major, Op. 59 No. 1 ‘Razumovsky’ (1806) represented a significant development in his writing for the string quartet as it is substantially longer, at around 40 minutes, than typical quartets of the era and is more demanding, with more sophisticated thematic development.
The Doric quartet’s exceptional performance captured Beethoven’s musical language and the way in which he establishes the music’s emotional range. The third movement, Adagio molto e mesto (very slow and sad), was especially enchanting, and resonated with Adès’s Lachrymae.
In response to audience acclamation, the ensemble gave an encore, and the choice was inspired—the Larghetto movement of Mozart’s clarinet quintet K581. Mozart wrote his quintet for the basset clarinet, and this excellent rendition again confirmed Van’t Hoff as a clarinettist of the highest rank. It also provided valuable insights into Adès’s Alchymia, as the mellifluous sound of the basset clarinet that Mozart wanted could be compared with the extended sound palette of Adès’s inventive work.
Van’t Hoff can make the basset clarinet sound as strident as a B flat clarinet, as ethereal as a flute and as resonant as a bassoon or bass clarinet, and his realisation of Adès’s sonic tapestry came into clearer focus upon hearing the Mozart.
This Musica Viva concert was not only an absolute delight but also an education in inventive musical composition and performance.
Chris Reid
When: 25 June
Where: Adelaide Town Hall
Bookings: Closed
Adelaide Symphony Orchestra. Elder Hall. 20 Jun 2026
Major orchestras are often criticised for their programming choices: not enough new music, too many potboilers, too many white male composers, not enough women, and the list goes on. It is a hot topic, and Australia’s leading arts and music magazine, Limelight, regularly publishes surveys tracking matters such as gender diversity and the representation of Australian and living composers. The findings vary from state to state and ensemble to ensemble, but historical works continue to dominate subscription seasons, even as there appears to be a growing push to feature contemporary and historically underrepresented voices.
So, it is a remarkable thing that a major orchestra like the Adelaide Symphony Orchestra should create a series such as She Speaks, dedicated to music by female composers, particularly those still living and creating today. Now an annual initiative, the series was launched in 2021 with a program curated by Adelaide-born composer and academic Anne Cawrse. Since then, it has presented both world premières of newly commissioned works by Australian women and Australian premières of music by prominent international composers.
As exciting as this is, the challenge is to avoid the “première and goodbye” phenomenon, where a work is performed once and then quietly shelved. Music history is littered with such casualties. How does new music become part of the standard repertoire? Today’s musical ecosystem is fundamentally different from that of even fifty years ago, largely because technology has made the world inextricably interconnected. Yet that alone is insufficient to secure a work’s future. Performers, conductors and ensembles must champion new music through repeated performances. Conservatories need to embed it within their curricula, publishers must produce authoritative editions, and broadcasters need to provide meaningful exposure. Only then can new works establish a foothold in the repertoire.
But none of this matters unless audiences actually like the music and want to hear it again, and again. Arguably, Adelaide audiences have sometimes been hesitant to embrace programs built around contemporary music. It was therefore pleasing to be part of a supportive, if modestly sized, audience in Adelaide University’s Elder Hall for a concert featuring several works that deserve a future life well beyond a single performance and would sit comfortably within a standard subscription series.
The program comprised six compositions by composers largely from English-speaking traditions. There were three Australian premières and one world première. Four of the six composers are still living, one of whom is 98 years of age.
The concert opened with Overture by Polish composer Grażyna Bacewicz, written in 1943 during the Nazi occupation of Poland. It is a brisk and energetic work dominated by woodwinds, brass and timpani, whose rhythmic drive propels the music relentlessly forward. Conductor Sara Duhig set and maintained a buoyant pace while allowing the contrasting lyrical central section, featuring especially fine flute playing, to emerge with clarity and warmth.
Grace-Evangeline Mason’s Upon Weightless Wings is cast in three brief movements and scored for an ensemble of around fifteen players, including tubular bells. Performed without a conductor, leadership passes naturally between instrumental groups as the musical focus shifts. Inspired by three contemporary artworks, each movement conveys a distinct sense of liberation, optimism and the exhilaration of new beginnings.
Anne Cawrse’s The King Walks in the Orangerie was the major work of the program: a setting for tenor and string ensemble of Kathryn Purnell’s narrative poem of the same name. Tenor Kyle Stegall majestically announces himself as the ghost of Louis XIV before reflecting on his regal life, loves and legacy. The score is exuberant and dramatically compelling, giving the soloist ample opportunity to explore the complexities of the so-called Sun King as he navigates joy, anger, wonder, remorse, regret, and suspicion while contemplating events that unfolded long after his death at the Palace of Versailles. Stegall is an accomplished operatic tenor who understands the importance of inhabiting a role. That approach is essential here: this is as much a character portrayal as it is an extended song cycle. The work deserves to be heard again—and widely. Organisations such as State Opera should not hesitate to program it as part of a gala concert or thematic presentation. Unfortunately, the acoustic of the upper level of Elder Hall occasionally compromised textual clarity.
Anna Clyne’s Within Her Arms is also scored for a small string orchestra of fifteen players, and once again the ASO performed without a conductor. Although contemporary in origin, the work evokes echoes of the English Renaissance through its mournful, drone-like sonorities. Gradually, the textures broaden and intensify, creating an ever-richer palette of colour and resonance. At its heart lies an almost de-personalised meditation on grief and remembrance. It is a work of quiet power that could enrich many different types of concert programs.
Thea Musgrave’s Night Windows is a suite of five miniatures celebrating the oboe’s capacity to embody searching, questioning, and discovery. Joshua Oates delivered a masterclass in control and expression, capturing the music’s fleeting mysteries and its sense of the known yet unseen. In some respects, the work is deliberately elusive: it offers tantalising gli mpses of resolution before withdrawing them, movement after movement. Only in the closing moments of the final movement, Frenzy, does Musgrave finally provide release, ending with an emphatic exclamation that feels as though the lights have suddenly been switched on.
The concert concluded with a highly entertaining performance of Imogen Holst’s Persephone. Alongside the Cawrse song cycle, it was one of the evening’s highlights. The full orchestra returned to the stage and, within moments, one could be forgiven for thinking a French Impressionist work had slipped onto the program. The musical narrative is expansive and pastoral, with superb interplay between flutes, strings and woodwinds. Like several works heard throughout the evening, this is a piece that deserves a place in mainstream orchestral programming.
She Speaks is a remarkable initiative by the Adelaide Symphony Orchestra. Long may it continue and may many of the works it champions avoid the fate of becoming yet more victims of the “première and goodbye” phenomenon.
Kym Clayton
When: 20 Jun
Where: Elder Hall
Bookings: Closed
Australian String Quartet. Elder Hall. 9 Jun 2026
The joy of a string quartet is that a good one demonstrates how four string players—two violins, a viola and a cello—can produce something greater than the sum of their individual voices. Interwoven, the title of the Australian String Quartet’s current national tour, presents four works spanning more than two centuries of the genre, each offering something distinctive and rewarding. Together, they reveal the string quartet’s remarkable capacity for reinvention across the ages and its continuing ability to provoke, engage and remain musically relevant.
The programme comprised Australian composer Elizabeth Younan's String Quartet No. 1 (Interwoven), Haydn's String Quartet in A Major, Op. 20 No. 6, Sergei Prokofiev's String Quartet No. 2 in F Major, Op. 92, and finally Clara Schumann's Variations on a Theme by Robert Schumann, Op. 20, arranged for string quartet by Éric Mouret.
In introducing the Schumann, violinist Francesca Hiew extolled Clara Schumann’s considerable gifts as both composer and performer and explained that the ensemble had chosen the work to conclude the concert. Yet perhaps the programme should have ended with the Prokofiev. Why? Simple. End the concert with a ‘bang’ and send the audience out into the night desperately wanting more from this superb ensemble. The Prokofiev achieves exactly that; the Schumann does not. The Prokofiev excites the entire body to its core, while the Schumann leaves the listener with a contented smile and a warm glow.
The concert began superbly with a spirited performance of Younan’s Interwoven. As the newest work on the programme, written by a living Australian composer, it challenges many assumptions about what a string quartet should sound like. As its title suggests, the work comprises interconnected strands of musical thought that briefly flirt with different motifs, textures and colours before moving on. Atmosphere takes precedence over traditional harmonic progression. It is unmistakably contemporary. Rather than presenting four distinct voices in conversation, the quartet often behaves as a single creature. Interwoven does not reveal its structure readily, but the ASQ played with admirable balance and ensured important musical lines emerged clearly.
Haydn's Op. 20 quartets, composed in 1772, are often known as the “Sun” Quartets and represent a pivotal moment in the history of chamber music. Before Haydn, quartets frequently resembled accompanied violin sonatas; here, genuine dialogue emerges and the four instruments become equal conversational partners. Op. 20 No. 6 opens with unusual seriousness and concludes with a substantial fugue rather than a more conventional lively finale, demonstrating Haydn's growing fascination with contrapuntal writing. In typically Haydnesque fashion, the entire work is developed with remarkable economy, never wasting a note or indulging in excess. That economy presents its own challenge for performers, demanding immaculate intonation and articulation to preserve clarity, particularly in the fugue. The ASQ delivered in spades.
If Haydn's quartet epitomises Classical balance, even with its forward-looking fugue, Prokofiev's Second Quartet bursts with twentieth-century colour, energy and national character. Written in 1941 while the composer was evacuated from Moscow during World War II, the work incorporates folk melodies and musical characteristics of the Kabardinian people among whom Prokofiev found himself living. Although often bold and rhythmically driven, the music is also lyrical and a wonderful demonstration of Prokofiev’s distinctive harmonic language. Its brilliance keeps the audience constantly engaged, with heads bobbing and fingers tapping thighs throughout. The ASQ sustained the work’s intensity and momentum while adroitly navigating its sudden shifts in mood and character. It is surely one of the most distinctive quartets of the twentieth-century repertoire and would have provided a thrilling conclusion to the evening.
Clara Schumann’s Variations was originally a piano work composed in 1853 on a theme by her husband Robert. While Romantic in style and rich in melody, it is also meticulously constructed, balancing emotional expression with formal discipline. In Mouret’s arrangement, the four instruments are used deftly to illuminate different facets of the theme and its transformations. The ASQ allowed the music to become deeply expressive without ever sacrificing balance or refinement.
The ASQ’s playing throughout the concert was skilful, disciplined and unfailingly musical. They consistently drew attention to the inner voices, and Chris Cartlidge’s viola lines were especially illuminating. The program amounted to a history lesson in the evolution of the string quartet, and it was utterly riveting.
Kym Clayton
When: 9 Jun
Where: Elder Hall
Bookings: Closed
Adelaide Symphony Orchestra. Adelaide Town Hall. 29 May 2026
Under the assured direction of Chief Conductor Mark Wigglesworth, the Adelaide Symphony Orchestra’s third concert in its flagship Symphony Series was a glorious celebration of German art music. The stage of the Adelaide Town Hall was filled to capacity with nearly one hundred musicians, delivering a blistering performance of Richard Strauss’ Four Last Songs with celebrated soprano Helena Dix, alongside Hank de Vlieger’s The Ring: An Orchestral Adventure, an hour-long orchestral synthesis of Richard Wagner’s monumental operatic tetralogy The Ring.
The concert was immense, leaving the audience in an elevated, awe-inspired state—and it could conceivably have been even better.
As is now customary, the ASO opens its Symphony Series concerts with a musical Acknowledgement of Country: Pudnanthi Padninthi II – Wadna, written by Kaurna composer Jamie Goldsmith in collaboration with Kaurna Narungga artist Jack Buckskin and orchestrator Mark Simeon Ferguson. Commissioned by the orchestra earlier this decade, the work unfolds with a steady, earthy rhythmic pulse intended to honour the Adelaide Plains and traditional ceremonial practices before expanding into a broad and sweeping orchestral landscape. Sometimes the ASO performs the work without a conductor, but on this occasion, Wigglesworth took the reins, directing the vast musical forces on stage to produce what was perhaps the most compelling account of the piece yet heard. The thematic material passed deliberately between the string sections, maintaining a clearly defined tempo that underpinned everything else. The result was both striking and deeply affecting. Perhaps the enlarged orchestra affords a conductor greater interpretative freedom with the work. It is not common for audiences to applaud the musical acknowledgement with enthusiasm, but on this occasion they certainly did.
Richard Strauss’ Four Last Songs are sublime meditations on the passing of time and the inevitability of death. Such subject matter might easily descend into melancholy, yet Strauss’ settings of texts by the German poets Josef von Eichendorff and Hermann Hesse are anything but sombre. Instead, they radiate beauty, serenity, acceptance, and at times even rapture. They stand among the crowning achievements of the art-song repertoire.
Performing them places extraordinary demands upon the soprano. She must possess profound breath control, faultless legato, and considerable stamina as she navigates Strauss’ opulent orchestration, ensuring that the most delicate pianissimi are meaningfully juxtaposed against climaxes that seem to engulf everything around them. Not only must she be a singer of exceptional accomplishment, but ideally an actress capable of illuminating the meaning behind every phrase. Helena Dix possesses all these qualities, and she appeared commanding yet vulnerable in her richly appointed emerald-green and black gown.
Dix was only one of almost one hundred accomplished musicians on stage, yet all eyes were on her. At times, her own gaze seemed fixed solely upon Concertmaster Kate Suthers as she delivered a luminous account of the long, soaring violin solo in the third song, Beim Schlafengehen (Upon Going to Sleep). Two classy women, seemingly alone within a crowd, sharing a sublime musical moment.
Beim Schlafengehen proved the most successful of the set, as the assembled might of the orchestra was occasionally allowed to overwhelm the soprano to such an extent that she could barely be heard. One audience member remarked to me afterwards that Helena Dix had “more in the tank”, and it is difficult not to agree. It was a pity that she either did not, or was not permitted to, fully unleash the splendour of her instrument. Having said that, the dynamic trajectory she shaped across the four songs was thoughtful and carefully judged; the orchestra was simply too loud.
As the final note of the fourth song, Im Abendrot (At Sunset), settled and gently dissolved into silence, one could almost hear a pin drop in the vast auditorium of the Adelaide Town Hall. Ten full seconds passed in complete stillness. Then came thunderous applause for a sublime soprano. Helena Dix was entirely at home on the stage.
There are no such complaints with the Wagner/de Vlieger. Much of Wagner’s music is immense in every sense of the word and requires vast musical resources if it is to achieve its full effect. This is certainly true of The Ring, and de Vlieger’s arrangement (which is purely instrumental and involves no singing) gathers key moments from each of the four operas in a manner that thoroughly disproves the famous quip that “Wagner has beautiful moments, but awful quarters of an hour!” The remark, frequently attributed to the Italian composer Rossini, neatly captures the divide between Wagner’s admirers and detractors: the former hear luxuriant orchestration and revolutionary harmonic language, while the latter hear an assault on patience and stamina.
Wherever one sits on that continuum of appreciation, Wagner’s long, meditative stretches are precisely what make the climactic moments feel so overwhelmingly exhilarating. This is exactly the effect Wigglesworth achieved with the ASO. Together they settled upon tempi that perfectly suited both the scale of the orchestra and the acoustic of the Town Hall. Wagner aficionados absorbed every moment and marvelled at what Wigglesworth and the ASO were accomplishing on stage. Those less familiar with Wagner responded with equal delight when recognisable passages such as the Ride of the Valkyries emerged from the orchestral texture.
Seventy minutes later—though it felt considerably less—the final notes of the concluding excerpt from Brünnhilde’s Immolation Scene rang out, and once again an eerie silence settled over the auditorium. The large audience appeared to absorb the immensity and gravity of what it had just heard and experienced. Then, just as it had at the end of the first half, the hall erupted into heartfelt, generous, and sustained applause in appreciation of a magnificent programme.
Mark Wigglesworth’s beaming smile said it all. When he received the traditional congratulatory floral arrangement, he immediately sought out principal horn player Adrian Uren and presented it to him in recognition of his gorgeous off-stage horn solo in Movement VIII (Siegfried’s Heldentat). The gesture delighted both the audience and his fellow musicians, providing a fittingly warm conclusion to a remarkable evening of music-making.
Kym Clayton
When: 29 to 30 May
Where: Adelaide Town Hall
Bookings: Closed
Esmond Choi. Derek Pascoe. Nexus Arts. 1 May 2026
For the second and final concert in Adelaide pianist Esmond Choi’s The Adventurous Project: Graphic Scores of Austin Engelhardt, Choi performed at the piano together with renowned saxophonist and saxophone teacher Derek Pascoe. This was a meeting of minds and musical hearts that produced enchanting results. (This review should be read together with Kym Clayton’s review of concert 1, here)
Choi’s printed program detailed Engelhardt’s instructions on the use of his Book 1, which comprises 26 graphic scores “created to inspire creative thought for improvisors”. For example, “pages may be viewed in any orientation and in any order”; where only a few pages are to be performed, “care should be taken to choose pages that feel as though they contrast well with each other”; and, “a dialogue among the players is an essential part of the rehearsal and execution…”. In their introductory remarks, Choi and Pascoe indicated that they had engaged in extensive such dialogue.
Choi and Pascoe performed from five of Engelhardt’s scores over a total of 45 minutes. For the benefit of the audience, the scores were projected onto a screen adjacent to the performers. Each score is a simple, fixed image—a few gestural strokes or splashes of paint, or a handprint—that serves as a trigger to the performers’ imaginations, possibly suggesting a sonic palette.
Classically trained Choi has illuminated the Adelaide music scene with his performances of contemporary solo piano music and especially the music of George Crumb, but he has had comparatively little experience with improvisation.
Pascoe, who has wide experience in jazz, experimental, and popular music, is adept at improvisation and, for example, teamed with jazz pianist Chris Martin to create the 18 CD box set of hour-long improvisations entitled Here Comes Everything (2025).
Responding to the first graphic score, Choi began by using a percussionist’s mallet to tap the piano’s strings while Pascoe played short phrases. Choi variously plucked or strummed the piano’s strings and employed a range of extended piano techniques typical of contemporary piano repertoire, exploring all the piano’s sonic possibilities, and he also played short phrases, using the piano both as a melodic and a percussive instrument.
Pascoe’s melodic passages initially anchored the music, framing its overall direction and pace, and he added dramatic flourishes. As the performance developed, Pascoe and Choi seemed to work instinctively in tandem, each stimulating a response in the other.
The graphic score is merely a trigger, a starting point. Gestural, arhythmic and often chromatic, the music rises and falls in volume and intensity. Choi’s playing is inventive and pianistic and his experience as a composer of piano music shows through. Some fragmentary piano passages recalled the character of Pierre Boulez’s Three Piano Sonatas (1957). One would not have guessed that Choi was so new to improvisation. At one point, Pascoe played the opening phrase from God Save the King, adding a little humour to the mix.
Their performance obliquely recalls the music of the legendary improvisers, The Necks, and Free Jazz artists such as Ornette Coleman and Sun Ra’s Arkestra, but this was not jazz and Choi and Pascoe did not adhere to any perceptible rhythmic pattern. In the absence of structure and thematic material, the art is in spontaneous musical invention and phrasing, which emerged fluidly and coherently, and they developed a most absorbing orchestration.
The listening experience is quite unique, as one listens much more deeply, becoming acutely aware of the sounds, resonances, textures, and the shaping of the music as it emerges. It was fascinating throughout.
The combination of Choi and Pascoe, with their diverse experiences and musical sensibilities, made for an engrossing musical cocktail. Their combined sound is thoroughly engaging and original, and The Adventurous Project has provided a firm foundation for future exploratory musical adventures.
Chris Reid
When: 1 May 2026
Where: Nexus Arts
Bookings: Closed