How does a ten-day festival in Townsville (Gurambilbarra) in tropical Far North Queensland, with a line-up of thirty-five top musicians from Australia and across the world, go from strength to strength in a difficult economic climate? Maybe it’s because the Australian Festival of Chamber Music, with a track record of more than thirty years, is so much more than a music event.

The program promotes lectures on topics as far-flung as AI and Musical Architecture, and showcases other artforms including dance and the literary arts. There were talks by David Malouf and Mirandi Riwoe, plus local talent, including performances by the Townsville Grammar School choir, the Southern Cross Catholic College ensemble, and the 1RAR jazz band.

Townsville’s balmy weather makes al fresco happenings possible and, with its proximity to the Barrier Reef, the AFCM is a sterling example of successful cultural tourism. Thousands sat on rugs or portable chairs for the free Queens Gardens Concert despite the threat of a storm, to hear the Barrier Reef Orchestra, conducted by the festival’s founding artistic director, Theodore Kuchar, deliver John Williams’s Star Wars score, a favourite from Bernstein’s West Side Story, and an extract from Holst’s The Planets.

On day five, many subscribers went on a whale-watching expedition. A gusty wind made the vessel pitch and roll, but those on board were thrilled to see an olive sea snake rise to the surface and, more spectacularly, a humpback cruising parallel to the boat while a companion whale breached in the distance. The passengers disembarked at Magnetic Island (Yunbenun) for brunch at Peppers Resort. Bronze-tipped Brahmani kites flew overhead.

Breakfast was serenaded by Jack Liebeck, the Festival’s artistic director, who gave a skilfully voiced performance of the Chaconne from J.S. Bach’s Partita in D Minor. Viola player Katie Yaps bold improvisation on a Renaissance Air might have been better suited to the next morning’s Concert Conversations, just as Shefali Pryor’s solo execution at that event of Seal’s Kiss from a Rose would have been a good match for Magnetic Island.

Arguably the most successful event was the highly polished and coherent Wonderful World, an ode to the planet performed by cellist Christian-Pierre La Marca, pianist Itamar Golan, and the AYO Momentum Ensemble.

La Marca’s cello sings in a hundred different voices, each with a stunning tone. The eloquent airings of Ernest Bloch’s From Jewish Life: Prayer and Ramirez’s Alfonsina y el Mar performed by this remarkable Rudolf Nureyev of the cello were dovetailed with film-maker Yann Arthus-Bertrand’s brilliant yet sometimes harrowing cinematography. La Marca’s mimicry of the Turkish saz, a long-necked lute, which yowled despairingly in Fazil Say’s Sonata for Cello and Piano, was eerily authentic.

British baritone Roderick Williams’s theatrical and inviting presence on stage made him one of the AFCM’s favourites. He performed wide-ranging repertoire from Purcell to Brett Dean. On opening night, he gave a powerful account of Jacques Brel’s Ne me quitte pas, in which he deftly avoided soupy sentiment.

Williams’s contributions were strong. In Brothers in Love, a concert in the Ray Golding Sunset Series on day seven, the program alternated lieder by Robert and Clara Schumann. Williams delighted the crowd with his heartfelt oratory.

Pianist Amandine Savary, who gave many admirable performances, including a brilliant duo piano version of Stravinsky’s Rite of Spring with Golan, was Williams’s associate. She plays beautifully, although the balancing begged for a stronger bassline in Townsville Civic Centre’s dry acoustic. Fortunately, plans for a new purpose-built concert hall are underway.

Countless excellent performances could have been airlifted to London’s prestigious Wigmore Hall as premium recital content. In the luxurious acoustic of St James Cathedral, Liebeck, on violin and sporting a pair of electric blue suede shoes, cellist Julian Smiles and Savary delivered a ravishing Piano Trio by Ravel.

Brahms’s Clarinet Quintet op. 115 played by The Goldner Quartet and British clarinetist Bliss was another winner. The latter’s glorious tone and seamless virtuosity combined superbly with the strings. Carl Vine’s Fantasia for piano quintet, with Piers Lane’s superb driving of the piano’s rapid spiky passagework with the Goldner was exceptional. The Quartet is about to retire after a thirty-year association with the AFCM. Dene Olding speculated that he and Irina Moroza, Dimity Hall, and Smiles had spent a year of their lives rehearsing and performing for the festival.

There are many strengths about this ambitious event; presenting music by eight composers-in-focus is one of them. Several also performed their works, which resulted in strong deliveries imbued with convincing authenticity.

Pimlico Outreach Workshop photographed by Naomi Watts

On day two’s Angels, Demons and other Nasties concert, Timothy Constable’s performance of his Last Shaman, a work based on a particular aspect of Korean language, was spell-binding because of his athletic dancing and determination in delivering the work’s wild rhythm.

An emphasis on First Nations music making is encouraging. William Mabo, grandson of the legendary land rights campaigner Eddie Mabo, opened the festival at the first Civic Theatre concert with a surprising meditation and a stunning didgeridoo solo.

A presentation by William Barton, composer and didgeridoo artist, and the traditional Aboriginal dancers the Wulgurukaba Walkabouts, and a meaningful collaboration, Three Generations, Three Songs, between Manbarra Bwgcolman Songwriters and Queensland’s experimental ensemble Topology, were featured on the Festival Garden platform.

Strangely, in an otherwise self-consciously inclusive festival, it was a glaring anachronism that all the composers-in-focus were men. Of the ninety-one of the works programmed, only nine were by women.

Whether they are local or came from regions across the country (including Melbourne, Sydney, Canberra, and Hobart), festival attendees are open-minded and while not everybody warmed to Brett Dean’s gritty Voices of Angels, so brilliantly essayed by Liebeck, Lane, Dean on viola, Umberto Clerici, cellist and Kees Boesma on double bass, this ensemble’s cinematic account was vigorously applauded.

Involving the charming, scholarly Stephen Johnson, who demonstrated David Attenborough level enthusiasm in addressing sessions about music, was a clever strategy. The presenter’s amusing What is Chamber Music? address on day two enabled his willing listeners to understand the inner dialogue within a selection of chamber music.

Afterwards, Alexandra Raikhlina and Barnett-Hart (violin), Benjamin Roskams (viola), and David Berlin (cello) gave a loving, insightful account of Henriette Bosman’s String Quartet.

The Australian Festival of Chamber Music ran from 26 July to 4 August 2024.