Ensemble Lumen, which comprises lecturers of Adelaide University’s Elder Conservatorium of Music, is establishing itself as a significant institution in Adelaide’s musical scene, and this concert added to its reputation with some thoughtful programming and fine performances.

Prodigious young Sydney composer Holly Harrrison is known for her energetic compositions that draw from popular culture to create highly original and engaging works. Her Swivel and Swerve was written in 2024 for soprano saxophone and piano, and for this concert she adapts it specially for Ensemble Lumen founder and clarinettist Lloyd Van’t Hoff, who is partnered in this performance by the Dean of the Conservatorium, acclaimed pianist Anna Goldsworthy.

Ensemble Lumen: Swivel and Swerve. Photo © Chris Reid

Swivel and Swerve is drawn from Harrison’s concerto for saxophone, Superhighway, and it’s a bouncy, joyous, six-minute burst of musical energy, bearing influences of several popular musical genres.

Van’t Hoff is in his element in this demanding work, with its frequent shifts of tempi, swirling melodies, angular syncopation and offbeat rhythms as it swivels and swerves through its various musical references.

In one passage, the pianist must...