CLASSICAL CONVERSATIONS
Arafura Music Collective presents two exquisite chamber concerts that highlight that the essence of chamber music lies in musical dialogue and communication.
WORDS RITA HORANYI
UNLIKE THE MORE formal structures of orchestral music, chamber music is often likened to an intimate gathering between friends. Musicians echo and respond to each other fluidly, building a compelling rapport with each other, the music, and the audience.
Arafura Music Collective’s latest performances lean into this concept of chamber music as a conversation between friends. The first concert, Jon’s Swan Song, offers audiences an opportunity to intimately connect with cellist and Artistic Director/Chief Conductor of Darwin Symphony Orchestra (DSO), Jonathan Tooby, through music.
Perhaps better known to Territorians for his work conducting DSO, Tooby is also an acclaimed cellist. A founding member of the highly successful, long-running Perth-based chamber ensemble, Darlington Quartet, Tooby has also played in orchestras and in chamber music collaborations across the globe.
Tooby finishes up his tenure at DSO, and farewells Darwin at the end of this year, making this concert the perfect opportunity to experience what makes him such a special performer. Arafura Music Collective’s Creative Director and Producer, Claire Kilgariff, invites audiences to enjoy his warm and engaging conversations about music before he scoots.
“This is Jon’s gift to Darwin to have a chat with people about music … It’s going to be a very informal and relaxed performance … He’s playing in every piece … He’s picked the whole program … They’re all pieces that he loves to play and that are his favourites,” she says.
Some of the pieces close to Tooby’s heart include Saint-Saëns’ exquisite ‘The Swan’, as well as works by Rachmaninoff, Schumann, and Bach – all perfect vehicles for his lyrical, expressive style of playing. Guest artists Graeme Gilling (piano) and Aya Smith (violin) round out what are sure to be exquisite performances.
Arafura Music Collective follows up this enchanting evening with two performances of another concert. Featuring nineteenth-century guitar specialist Professor Adrian Walter AM as a guest artist, Hearing Double offers an exciting program that explores the concept of musical dialogues in a multitude of ways.
“It’s about musical voices across time, style and culture and really revealing that idea that dialogue is at the heart of the chamber music idea. It’s about connection, listening, renewal … and it will give the audience an idea of the different ways that this idea of connection and dialogue has played out over different times,” Kilgariff says.
From the more formal musical conversations of the Baroque era to the intimate back and forth of nineteenth century parlour music and beyond, each piece in the concert features two soloists that ‘talk’ to one another in a duet, before responding to the broader ensemble.
A highlight of the program is the performance of ‘Darwin Calypso’ by Australian composer Peter Sculthorpe that’s dedicated to Adrian Walter and his wife Anne, and was written for the 2002 Darwin International Guitar Festival, which Walter directed. With its swaying rhythms and Calypso style, the piece evokes the abundance and laid-back atmosphere of the tropics, demonstrating how music can also be in dialogue with place.
Head along to one or both concerts and engage with these beautiful musical conversations.
Jon’s Swan Song
WHEN SUN 2 NOV | 5PM
AT CDU THEATRE, CASUARINA
COST FREE-$40
Hearing Double - Palmerston
WHEN SAT 8 NOV | 4PM
AT GRAY COMMUNITY HALL
COST FREE-$25
Hearing Double - Darwin
WHEN SUN 9 NOV | 5PM
AT SUPREME COURT DARWIN
COST FREE-$40
INFO arafuramusiccollective.org.au
Image: Paz Tassone
