Back in pre-pandemic days when Musica Viva Australia used to stage international chamber music festivals it became a traditional finale for two of the star guest string quartets to get together for a performance of Felix Mendelssohn’s Octet.

But in 2017, then Artistic Director Carl Vine broke the mould by commissioning young Adelaide composer Jakub Jankowski to write a new octet with a Faustian theme. The work incorporated the characters of Faust (violin) and Mephistopheles (cello) with the players speaking as witches and warlocks on Walpurgis Night.

It was a huge success and for many of us in the audience it was our first encounter with the cellist-composer who came up through the ranks of the Adelaide Youth Orchestra and whose introduction to classical music as a teenager came through Stanley Kubrick’s use of excerpts of Krzysztof Penderecki’s music in his film The Shining. Ever since that encounter Jankowski has been fascinated by the relationship between rhythm and image, as well as – perhaps as a nod to his Polish roots – the folk music of Eastern Europe.

Richard Tognetti and the Australian Chamber Orchestra. Photo © Daniel Boud

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