The Melbourne International Chamber Music Competition (MICMC) made a very welcome return to the concert calendar this week.

The ninth iteration since the competition was established in 1991, it had been postponed last year owing to the ongoing impact and uncertainty of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Aside from an appropriate concession made by the organisers to temporarily raise the maximum age of performers to 35, thankfully there was little sign of that particular shadow hanging over the past week of highly energised and focused concert-making.

While we do well, I think, to question, philosophically at least, whether competitiveness should really be a big ‘thing’ for classical musicians, from a pragmatic view, not least, an event such as this does much to draw positive attention to both the art form and the artists who dedicate their lives to it, as well as providing for the lucky few who ‘win’, a significant financial and promotional fillip to their careers.

As has been its model, following several days of heats held at the Hawthorn Town Hall, the Competition’s Grand Final consisted of two concerts of short-listed Piano Trios and String Quartets at the Melbourne Recital Centre, the venue that the competition (and its founders) did much to...