Capping off the seventh day of the Australian Festival of Chamber Music, Viennese Classics at the Townsville Civic Centre was accompanied by a coolness that cleared away the narcotising effect of Townsville’s humidity. Equally refreshing was the programme, a collection of unusual works and configurations combined with well-loved repertoire – a far cry from the bland offerings one often hears under the title ‘classics’.

Trey Lee presented the opening notes of Beethoven’s variations on Handel’s See the Conqu’ring Hero Comes from Judas Maccabeus (well-known also as a hymn tune) with simple elegance and a honeyed tone, his cello resonant in the low register. The variations are very much a duet for piano and cello, and Andrew West proved an amiable partner, tripping lightly through the first solo piano variation. Lee and West played off each other through the variations – sometimes impassioned sometimes playfully animated – the light-hearted ending bring smiles to their lips.

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The second quartet in Haydn’s Op. 2 set was arranged with a lute part during his...