★★★★☆ A bold new collection of Australian songs makes for an intense experience.

Melbourne Recital Centre
April 29, 2016

Crossover is a term that most classical music aesthetes shudder to hear. Dumbed-down, hyped-up and sugar coated for mass-consumption is often the expectation when the commercially minded pop and rock business tries to repackage classical to have a broader appeal. Generally speaking, the divide between the great classical icons and their crossover counterparts is an unbridgeable gulf, but there are some instances when a more unbuttoned approach to classical music can reveal something quite special. One artist who is particularly skilled at negotiating the treacherous hinterland between pop and classical is singer-songwriter Katie Noonan, who for her latest project has collaborated with the Brodsky String Quartet to commission ten new settings of the poetry of Judith Wright. Noonan has set her sights high in realising this landmark collection of songs, engaging some of Australia’s leading composers: Elena Kats-Chernin, David Hirschfelder, Paul Dean, Andrew Ford, Iain Grandage, Paul Grabowsky, Carl Vine, John Rodgers, Richard Tognetti, as well as herself. The result, With Love and Fury, is a taut anthology of songs exploring Wright’s beautifully wrought vision of Australian life.

During the second...