Wisely for a concert opening the 31st Canberra International Music Festival, there was something in this program for everyone.

It was also emblematic of an avant-garde turn for the Festival under new Artistic Director Eugene Ughetti, who has assembled a four-day kaleidoscope, not only of musical forms, but embracing other artistic expression and genres.  With a theme of freedom hard-won, and an emphasis on Finnish and Australian indigenous musical contributions, Fantasia gave the audience tastes of what the Festival has in store.

CIMF 2025. Fantasia. Melbourne Chamber Orchestra. Photo © Peter Hislop

From the familiar to the other end of the experimental musical spectrum, Crystalline by Olivia Bettina Davis built fragments of sound into a soundscape of sforzando and rapid crescendo and decrescendo elements on each stringed instrument. Meant to echo the process of crystals forming, it could equally evoke a cloud of insects, coming and going.

The world premiere of Richard Mills’ Violin Concerto: Four Portraits of the Blessed Virgin, based on interpretations of religious artists, was both sensitive and drama-filled, the solo exquisitely executed by the MCO’s Artistic Director Sophie Rowell, in the presence of the composer.

The second movement, At...