Adelaide Town Hall
June 1, 2018

Grace & Grandeur marked Grace Clifford’s much-anticipated return to an Adelaide stage, which she has not graced since her 2016 Sibelius Concerto – when, at the age of 18, she astonished the Limelight reviewer with her “refined, precise musicianship” and a “depth of musical maturity way beyond her years”. Things have only improved from there. Now studying at the Curtis Institute of Music in Philadelphia, and welcomed back to Adelaide as the Adelaide Symphony Orchestra’s inaugural Emerging Artist in Association, Clifford last night gave further proof of that skill and insight which has singled her out as one of Australia’s finest young violinists.

Grace Clifford. Photograph © Anthony Browell

Clifford has said that the Mendelssohn Concerto was one of the first violin concertos she ever learnt. With such a well-loved and well-known work, it’s a real challenge to play in a way which bypasses the establishments and the assumptions, and reveals to the audience the freshness and vitality which is still at the heart of this music. For me, Clifford rose to this challenge with dauntless grace.

The secret was in her sound – from the opening, that...