★★★★☆ Insightful concept packed with percussive thrills and spills.

City Recital Hall, Angel Place, Sydney
May 24, 2016

Here’s an intriguing and illuminating idea. Sydney Symphony Orchestra Director of Artistic Planning Benjamin Schwartz has collaborated with a handful of orchestral musicians to curate a set of concerts aimed at revealing a little bit about what makes a player tick through a selection of their favourite music. The second of the series focussed on Richard Miller, Principal Timpanist, and an SSO veteran of over 40 years. It would be fair to say that the affable, engaging percussionist can talk the hind legs off the proverbial donkey, so what was intended to be a one-hour format ran closer to 90 minutes, but no matter; what ensued was an insightful, sometimes emotional portrait of a musician, his life and his enthusiasms, presented in ideally relaxed circumstances with the clearly affectionate cooperation of many colleagues.

Around 50 players, the men in less-formal black suit and tie, thronged the City Recital Hall platform under the sure-footed baton of Brett Weymark to present six intimate and acoustically thrilling excerpts interspersed with chat from Miller himself. In...