★★★½☆ A timely reminder of the life and work of Frederick Septimus Kelly.

St. James’ Church, Sydney
October 23, 2016

Most Australians seem to remember their great sportsmen. However, one whom they have forgotten is the champion sculler, Frederick Septimus Kelly – maybe it’s a form of retribution, since his Eight which won a Gold Medal in the 1908 Olympics was the English squad: understandably so, because he had lived most of his life there, in privileged circles. More seriously, perhaps, this amnesia is probably because he was a concert musician – a seriously accomplished pianist and composer.

Because this year is the centenary of his death (on November 13, 1916, during the final week of the notorious Somme campaign in WWI) it was a timely reminder of his life and work – which have slowly become better-known since the publication of his entry in Volume 9 of the Australian Dictionary of Biography (1983) – when the entire second half of this concert, Three Treasures, was devoted to Kelly’s music.

The venue, indeed, is a mere dozen paces from the hall where Kelly gave a number of concerts when he briefly returned to Australia in 1911 – concerts which might have provided the...