Grievance Debate

Chamber Music Adelaide

Mr GARDNER (Morialta) (15:15): It gives me pleasure to identify that Chamber Music Adelaide conducted an exercise on the weekend that I want to bring to the house's attention. I want to commend Chamber Music Adelaide for this exercise because I thought it was a very solid endeavour. It was called On the Terrace. Chamber musicians of different natures were engaged to perform at our three sandstone institutions that sit next to each other on North Terrace: the State Library of South Australia, the Art Gallery of South Australia and the South Australian Museum.

We had the opportunity, as did significant numbers of the South Australian community, to go along and enjoy chamber music in those very special environments. It is the sort of thing that I think would do us all good to see more of. I commend also those three institutions—the Museum, the Library and the Art Gallery—for allowing their spaces to be used in this way. While I was there, appreciating about five of the performances, the thing that struck me was that not only were there significant numbers of people who had gone to those institutions to appreciate the music that was on offer but there were also significant numbers of people who were at the institutions anyway, who seemed to be taking significant pleasure in the opportunity to see the performances.

You never like to single out one performer when there is a number who are particularly good, but one that really struck me performed in the Art Gallery, in a room where a significant number of Australiana and South Australiana paintings were displayed. The musicians engaged included a flautist and a classical guitarist, who played a number of pieces that were contemporaneous—

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER Order! Due respect should be shown to the member for Morialta, and the three groups nattering around the gangway should go elsewhere. Member for Morialta.

Mr GARDNER: Thank you, sir. The music selected was contemporaneous with when Matthew Flinders was exploring South Australia. The musicians identified that some of the music was known to be popular with Matthew Flinders himself, who was a flautist and may have played. There were also works by a South Australian composer that were recovered and rearranged for the occasion. I commend all of the artists and companies involved.

At the State Library, the Kegelstatt Ensemble, with Steph Wake-Dyster on the clarinet, Kim Worley on the cello, and Leigh Harrold on the piano, performed an exceptional piece, Fantasy Trio by Robert Muczynski, which I had not heard before and which was tremendous. There was a significant number of people in the State Library when I walked in, because they were multiple performances on the day, who were clearly appreciating the music while they were in the library for other reasons, so I do not see why we cannot do this more often. Also, Russian pianist Konstantin Shamray presented works by Scarlatti, Schnittke and Tchaikovsky, which were terrific.

At the South Australian Museum, there were several performers from the Recitals Australia group—Aiden Sullivan, Lili Horner and Joseph Freer—who were particularly well appreciated. That was the one performance I did not get to go to, unfortunately. However, it was great to see John Aue on the double bass and Derek Pascoe on the saxophone supporting a terrific young guitarist from the Centre for Aboriginal Studies in Music at Adelaide University, who stepped in at the last minute to replace the advertised performer.

He sang some terrific songs and did a terrific job, appropriately right outside the Aboriginal exhibition at the South Australian Museum. What I thought was notable in that particular performance was the number of people (who were taking their kids to the Museum and were looking at either the stuffed animals or the Aboriginal collection) who then stopped on their way out for 20 minutes to listen to some of the music.

At the Art Gallery, I mentioned Tim Nott and Geoffrey Morris from Ensemble Galante and their really strong works, including Schubert, Pleyel and South Australian composer Carl Linger. I want to particularly congratulate the a cappella vocal trio of Bethany Hill, Sarah Jane Pattichis and Courtney Turner from Various People Inc. They are three sopranos who did a terrific job and really made the Melrose Wing of the gallery come alive with music. I commend Chamber Music Adelaide for their work and I hope we will see a lot more of it in the future.