They entitled this concert Heartfelt Storytelling and I can see the reasons. First up was one movement of a composition by one of the Dunera boys, a ship of Europeans deported to Australia by the Brits in early WW2, comprising a few hundred each of Italian and German POWS and ~2,000 German and Italian civilians, mostly Jewish refugees. Plenty of others went to Canada. Max-Peter Meyer was one and the group played mvt.2 of his Piano Quartet. Nice one. But the highlight was Faure Piano Quartet no.1. Again, a work of heartfelt loss, in this case, by Faure of his bride-to-be, Marianne Viardot, who left sometime during their engagement. This was a fabulously powerful and emotive piece and played with both passion and musical precision by this group. I'd seen them, or at least most of them, at Government house and was impressed, but these works were more demanding and involving and the concert hall setting allowed it. Suffice to say there were whoops and standing ovations at the end of this one. I was particularly taken by the ensemble nature of the group, often with eyes up, frequently by Brad and often enough by James. And the accuracy in expression and intonation that just spelt impressive listening. What a fabulous concert. As I heard later, "the future of classical music is in good hands". Yep, this was a seriously satisfying outing.
The Callistemon Quartet performed Meyer and Faure at a Wesley lunchtime concert. CQ comprised Anika Chan (violin), Brad Tham (viola), James Munro (cello) and Rhys Butterworth (piano).
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