Mimir Chamber Music Festival has become a welcome fixture in Melbourne’s chamber music calendar, allowing visiting musicians to mentor students from the Melbourne Conservatorium of Music (MCM) as well as perform in their own right. Founded in the United States where it has enjoyed 22 seasons, this year sees Mimir celebrating its seventh Melbourne season and its first in the Conservatorium’s new home, the Ian Potter Southbank Centre adjacent to the Melbourne Recital Centre.

Brant Taylor, Jun Iwasaki, Stephen Rose, Curt Thompson and Joan DerHovsepian. Photo © Albert Comper

Hanson Dyer Hall (named after musical entrepreneur and philanthropist, Louise Hanson-Dyer) is a 400-seat auditorium that has a warm, appealing, timber-clad performing space. Designed by John Wardle Architects, there is a tip of the hat to mid-century modernist aesthetics. Seats are wide and comfortable with generous legroom between rows. There is also a small bar in the foyer.

The first evening concert of the festival continued Mimir’s trend of unusual programming. First up was Mahler’s Piano Quartet in A Minor, a student work of which only one completed movement survives. Cast in late Romantic style, the work contains virtually no hints about the composer’s future...