Brooklyn Rider’s final concert in its magnificent Chamberfest series features the string players of the Australian National Academy of Music in a program that showcases the potential of these young musicians and again highlights the depth and breadth of chamber music.

Brooklyn Rider opens the concert with Giovanni Sollima’s Four Quartets, named in reference to TS Eliot’s series of poems addressing spiritual themes. Commissioned by Brooklyn Rider, the first movement, Burnet Norton, is lyrical and colourful, and East Coker begins slowly and thoughtfully. The performers intermittently bark like dogs in the final movement of this enjoyable work.

Brooklyn Rider. Photo supplied

For the next work, Brooklyn Rider introduces the ANAM String Quartet of Olivia Kowalik and Jasmine Milton (violins), Hanna Wallace (viola), and Max Zhenxiang Wung (cello), who, together with visiting American soprano Ariadne Greif, perform the aria Am I in your light?  

This gorgeous aria is from John Adams’s opera Doctor Atomic, with libretto by Peter Sellars, concerning Dr J Robert Oppenheimer’s role in the final preparations for the use of atomic bombs at Hiroshima and Nagasaki.

Ariadne Greif wonderfully portrays the feelings of Oppenhimer’s wife, Kitty, whose husband is absorbed in his work. The aria includes the lines, “This light is thick with birds, and / evening warns us beautifully of death,” inviting reflection on present-day conflicts.

To contrast the early Haydn string quartet featured in Concert 1, the ANAM String Quartet then performs a late Haydn quartet, his String Quartet in D minor, Op. 76 No. 2, Quinten, again paying homage to the father of the string quartet.

The first Allegro movement is a bouncy, joyous piece, opening with a theme based on descending fifths (hence the ‘Quinten’), and some delightful melodies emerge, repeated in various permutations and inversions and emphasising the interplay between instruments.

The second Andante di molto più tosto allegretto movement begins as a gentle song in the first violin before the other instruments harmonise. The motoric Menuetto, Allegro ma non troppo is a canon setting the cello against the other instruments, and the Vivace assai finale is excitedly energetic. The excellent ANAM quartet performs throughout with confidence and poise.

For Osvaldo Golijov’s nonet, Ever Yours, after which this concert is named, Brooklyn Rider is joined by the ANAM String Quintet – the ANAM Quartet together with ANAM double bassist Maddison Furlan.

Golijov took the title Ever Yours from the last line of Vincent van Gogh’s letters to his brother Theo, in which he described the colours he saw, and Golijov’s music is indeed colourful, a celebration of pure music. Golijov was influenced by Haydn’s musical language and his use of the perfect fifth, and it’s exemplified by Golijov’s first movement, Sowing Fifths.

The second movement, entitled Starbound, and the third, You Reap What You Sow, recall Van Gogh’s paintings The Starry Night and The Sower. The final movement, Papa, is a direct reference to Haydn and includes a brief quotation from the Haydn quartet heard earlier.

Brooklyn Rider and the ANAM Quartet then perform an arrangement for octet of a work popularised by the Danish String Quartet, Minuet No. 60 from Rasmus Storm’s Notebook. Storm was an 18th century Danish fiddler who collected traditional music.

This arrangement of Minuet No. 60 gives every member of the octet a distinct voice, continuing the emphasis on democracy characteristic of the Concert 1 program. The orchestration for octet adds depth and complexity to the composition, and the ANAM performers combine seamlessly with Brooklyn Rider, as if they’ve had years of experience playing together.

Brooklyn Rider and the ANAM players then continue the folk theme with a rearrangement for nonet of the Danish String Quartet’s arrangement of the Scottish-Danish traditional The Dromer. In one magical moment, the ANAM players play the theme of For Auld Lang Syne while Brooklyn Rider plays the melody from The Dromer.

To conclude the concert, the nonet performs an arrangement of an early Brooklyn Rider work, the Colin Jacobsen and Siamak Aghaei/Persian traditional Ascending Bird, which was originally scored for string quartet and percussion – double bass pizzicati substitute for the percussion – another fine rearrangement of a quartet work.

Brooklyn Rider’s programming for this Chamberfest series has been inspirational, and the enchanting performances of the octet and nonet round off the series wonderfully.