Chamber series Selby & Friends’ second tour for 2019 – Love & Devotion – celebrates the much tittered about but extremely musically fertile relationship between Clara Schumann, her husband Robert Schumann, and the young rising star Johannes Brahms. This year is the 200th anniversary of Clara Schumann’s death –celebrated with far less pomp than 2020’s Beethoven anniversary is already promising – and the concert opened with her Three Romances of 1853. It was one of three works on the program spanning a period of about seven years near the end of Robert Schumann’s life during which his mental health was deteriorating – and the Romances, written for the violinist Joseph Joachim (with whom Clara would tour the work), interweave with Joachim’s introduction of Brahms to the Schumanns.

Grace Clifford, Kathryn Selby and Timo-Veikko Valve. Photo supplied

Pianist Kathryn Selby was joined by two Friends who are by now familiar faces to fans of the series, violinist Grace Clifford and cellist Timo-Veikko Valve. Clifford’s sound has a warmth and depth to it that has captivated audiences since she won the Australian Young Performer of the Year Award in 2014 (and...