IT’S not often classical music performers and their audience are visited by an inquisitive possum or a lazy python, but that’s exactly what’s happened in the past at the Craven Creek Music Festival.
Each year, some of Australia’s most outstanding classical musicians make the journey up the Bucketts Way to Gloucester and beyond to Rookhurst, before heading down a dirt track to perform over a weekend in a near-century-old tin farm shed.
This year the Saturday morning performance was interrupted briefly by a nearby cow giving birth, but it failed to dampen the audience’s enthusiasm for the music.
The Craven Creek festival is one of at least 20 classical music festivals around the state and has grown in popularity since its inception in 2013.
This year the audiences at the four concerts over Saturday and Sunday came to see and hear five of Australia’s most outstanding musicians perform Beethoven, Schubert, Clara Schumann and more.
The program was curated by the principal cellist of the Australian Chamber Orchestra (ACO), Timo-Veikke (Tipi) Valve, and he had gathered such outstanding players as Melbourne-based pianist Aura Go, Sydney Symphony Orchestra’s Associate Concertmaster Harry Bennetts, ACO violinist Liisa Pallandi and double bassist Josef Bisits.
The two morning performances were mostly Beethoven.
“‘The musicianship was some of the best I’ve heard at Craven Creek,” said music educator Michelle Ware.
“I would even say Saturday’s performance of Beethoven’s Ghost Trio was possibly the most exceptional of its kind I have ever heard.”
The afternoon program showcased three female composers from different eras, followed by Franz Schubert’s “The Trout”, which received a standing ovation.
This weekend was the second time that Tipi had performed at Craven Creek.
He described it as a joy to return.
“The idea of music in an old shed is so unusual and refreshing for us,” he said.
“These are the performances we really remember.
“The Craven Creek Music Festival is an example of what’s happening in Gloucester, now a true crucible of the best in culture,” organiser Greg Lindsay added.
By John WATTS
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