The 23rd Canberra International Music Festival is now mid-way through the 22 concerts of its 2017 season. This year’s theme of Revolution continues to grow in intensity with each event.

As my Limelight colleague Angus McPherson has already reported, CIMF’s Artistic Director Roland Peelman has hinged this year’s programme around the centenary of the Russian Revolution. At the same time, he has also looked outwards to music that was either inspired by or written in revolutionary times, or music that was, in its own way, revolutionary.

At first glance, the inclusion of Mozart – so welcome at any time! – may appear a little odd in this revolutionary roll-call until we remember that he was composing many of his masterworks as the anciens regimes of Europe were toppling from their foundations. In that context, the inclusion of three major works – the Dissonance quartet, the clarinet quintet and the G major string quintet – affords some insight into Mozart’s thinking and evolving technical language as the guillotines were being prepared for the French Revolution of 1789.

Canberra International Music FestivalThe Van Kuijk Quartet and Florian Peelman. Photos © Peter...