Australian Festival of Chamber Music, Townsville Civic Theatre
August 4, 2018

After nine days of intense music making, the Australian Festival of Chamber Music’s Festival Farewell is a celebratory event at which (in addition to the requisite fine performances) the musicians can let their hair down a bit and have some fun. It tends to be a rather sprawling affair, which the AFCM acknowledged head on this year with the inclusion of a second interval, dividing the gala concert into three acts.

Long-time AFCM stalwarts and Quartet-in-Residence the Goldner String Quartet opened proceedings with Carl Vine’s Third String Quartet. If the musicians were feeling any festival fatigue, they didn’t show it, giving a detailed, energetic performance that was one of the highlights of the evening. Melbourne Symphony Orchestra’s Principal Flute Prudence Davis gave a soft-edged, delicate account of Henri Dutilleux’s Sonatine for flute and piano – Katya Apekisheva dispatching the formidable piano part with fleet-footed verve – before AFCM Artistic Director Kathryn Stott and Daniel de Borah took us to the first interval with a sparkling performance of Percy Grainger’s Gershwin showpiece, the Porgy and Bess Fantasy.

Alexander...