The Melbourne Festival is thirty years young and with this milestone comes an opportunity to reminisce and to celebrate a festival that has become such an important part of the city’s cultural landscape. So many great musical memories come flooding back. Although the festival doesn’t do much ‘grand’ opera these days, the operatic experiences are hard to forget. Gian Carlo Menotti, the festival’s founding artistic director brought his own operas to town, including a moving production of The Consul, later there was a haunting Canadian double bill of Ewartung and Bluebeard’s Castle and then of course there was Die Frau ohne Schatten with its amazing David Hockney sets conducted by Simone Young and Prokofiev’s The Fiery Angel presented by the Kirov Opera.

Equally important are the memories of intimate music making, something that remains a vital strength of the festival’s makeup. Stephen MacIntyre’s superbly curated twilight concerts were a quintessential festival experience, characterised by creative programming, accomplished artistry and the warmth of the host’s welcome.

This year’s festival programme confirms the chamber music tradition, especially with the final instalment of a three-year project to present all of Haydn’s 68 string quartets. Conceived by Richard Tognetti and this year curated by Marshall...