It might have been tempting for two of this year’s busiest Canberra International Music Festival musicians to let their hair down in a cozy bar, before an intimate audience sipping cocktails.

Although relishing the relative freedom of jazz tempos and leaning into the ability to milk musical climaxes and opportunities for wild improvisation, David Griffiths and Timothy Young don’t give an inch in terms of precision and polish in this performance of jazz and ragtime numbers for clarinet and honky-tonk piano.

Timothy Young and David Griffiths: Prohibition Rags. Photo © Dalice Trost

A bogus barber’s shop façade at the Canberra’s QT Hotel conceals a buzzing prohibition-era speakeasy bar. The half-light allows you to see the shapes, but hides the faces, of an audience seated on stools at elevated bar tables as Griffiths and Young play from the far end of the room.

Instead of the fine Yamaha grand pianos Young’s hands have graced earlier in this festival week, this scarred upright – with a couple of broken strings and short a few keys at the top end – fits the bill both visually and...