Townsville Bulletin

Reviewed by Gillian Wills – 30 July 2012

William Barton and Friends
The Cultural Centre

William Barton is a powerful ambassador for indigenous cultural traditions and has toured all over the world, performing with famous orchestras to promote the didgeridoo vibrant possibilities as a legitimate musical instrument.  Barton began collaborating with classical musicians at this Festival some 11 years ago.

The delivery of Sculthorpe’s Earth Cry, with its quintessentially Australian soundprint for string quartet and didgeridoo, is a popular repertoire staple in this event.

Once again, the partnership between the Goldner Quartet’s beautifully played repeated patterns buoyed by a rising and falling, percolating undercurrent from Barton impressed.

Reviewed by Gillian Wills – 31 July 2012

Stan Getz supposedly said, ‘A good quartet is like a good conversation among friends interacting to each other’s ideas’.

In the Goldner’s interpretation of Beethoven’s Quartet in D major this comment was particularly relevant.

This Quartet is surprisingly reflective, calm and plaintive without Beethoven’s trademark accented anguish and emotional flickering between strong and tender dynamics and dark harmonic moments.

Evidently Dene Olding, Dimity Hall, Irina Morozova and Julian Smiles cherish this work.

With stunning phrasing, colourful detail and exceptional balances between the violin, viola and cello voices they invoked that magical alchemy that only occurs when top class musicians spirit black dots on a page into a wonderful breathing presence.

Reviewed by Gillian Wills – 31 July 2012

Governor’s Gala – Townsville Civic Centre

Listen to this concert on ABC Classic FM

With such a gathering of world-class musicians in Townsville it’s crucial to present works that highlight their skills.

Camerata of St John’s, a masterclass in ensemble unity, provided stirling support in this stunning concert of six challenging works.

No mean undertaking in an adventurous program time traveling through centuries of music-making.

Across Australia, artistic directors are forever scratching their heads over how to slip Australian art music into concerts.

Yet, after interval there were three contemporary works – Malcolm Williamson’s Second Piano Concerto with Piers Lane as soloist, Westlake’s Out of the Blue and Matthew Hindson’s extraordinary The Rave and the Nightingale in which the Goldner Quartet excelled.

The assembled musical force whipped up a surrealistic storm of mangled Schubertian tunes swirling in a blast of wild offbeat rhythms and the audience left happy, their ears still buzzing with Hindson’s music.