It’s not often that you get to hear the premieres of four substantial sets of art songs in a short period of time. Over consecutive evenings, Chamber Music Adelaide presented new compositions for voice by Anne Cawrse, Glyn Lehmann, Jodie O’Regan and the team of Nathan May and Julian Ferraretto.

Chamber Music Adelaide is an umbrella organisation that facilitates and promotes performances by several Adelaide and interstate chamber ensembles. In these innovative concerts, CMA produced these newly commissioned works in the Adelaide Town Hall, a larger venue than the typically intimate spaces in which its member ensembles perform.

The 10 May concert, Stars, Atoms, and Strange Songs, featured Glyn Lehmann’s As The Universe Expands and Anne Cawrse’s She Who Knows Strange Songs. To introduce them, the concert opened with Opera Australia bass Pelham Andrews and pianist Penelope Cashman’s exquisite rendition of three songs by Samuel Barber that dwell poignantly on human relations: Rain has fallen, Solitary Hotel and Sure on this shining night.

Andrews and Cashman then gave us three delightful songs by Ned Rorem: To a Young Girl, Early in the morning and Ferry me across the water. These early twentieth century songs set the scene musically and emotionally for...