This innovative program pairs two works by Australian composer Meta Cohen – Delphi Songs for voice and piano and The Warning Never Heard for solo piano – with Olivier Messiaen’s monumental Visions de l’Amen for two pianos.

Both composers’ music is embedded in a wider literary and philosophical context, and the program notes and festival director/pianist Coady Green’s verbal introductions provide a vital frame of reference.

Coady Green. Photo supplied

Cohen’s Delphi Songs are, in her words, “a collection of four musical episodes that meditate on prophecy, decline and the fragility of what we hold sacred”.

Inspired by the prophecies of Pythia, the Oracle of Delphi, Cohen sought to convey the high priestess’s feelings of awe, power and loss, isolated by her gifts; her mounting horror as she watches “something once eternal begin to rot”; and her despairing, almost disbelieving realisation that “it is finished”.

Mezzo-soprano Jessica Aszodi has the musicality, exquisite voice and exceptional technique needed to give an inspiring performance of Cohen’s technically and emotionally challenging score, accompanied with great finesse by Green.

Highlights include the poignant unaccompanied...