Now in its 12th year, Sydney-born company Kammerklang has been championing new Australian art music throughout Sydney and Melbourne. Vestige: A Hidden Curiosity, and its sister concert Memento in Melbourne in May, are the outcome of an open call to Australian composers to submit new works, hoping to save pieces that may have been brushed aside from entirely fading into obscurity. The resulting program of Vestige was diverse and exploratory, and performed with grace and energy in the familiar Recital Hall West of Kammerklang’s birthplace, the Sydney Conservatorium of Music.

Soprano Anna Fraser and pianist Jack Symonds in Kammerklang’s Vestige: A Hidden Curiosity at the Sydney Conservatorium of Music. Photo © Tania Vuk

The music presented in the program was not always the easiest to comprehend, but for those willing to give full attention to the works, it provided a curious treat. Starting off with Dawn by Sydney composer Ian Whitney, an almost impressionistic setting of a poem by Sarah Day, the program wandered through styles and forms from lieder to chanson (and occasionally within the same piece). Diana Blom’s Trewella was introduced as a ‘sea shanty’ and it definitely ventured beyond that...