Music / Chamber Classics, Canberra Symphony Orchestra. At Albert Hall, February 18. Reviewed by SARAH EC BYRNE.

The rain outside the French doors of the Albert Hall made an appealing backdrop of white noise for this charming program of chamber classics to open the Canberra Symphony Orchestra’s 2024 season.

Bassoonist Ben Hoadley undertook double duty as MC, for this performance by a world-class septet led by CSO concertmaster Kirsten Williams. To lead us into the main event, the viola and cello stepped aside for Richard Strauss’ Till Eulenspiegel Einmal Anders!, arranged for quintet by Franz Hasenohrl.

The piece was a brilliant evocation of a subversive (and extremely rude) creature of German folklore.

Distilled from the original orchestral tone poem into a nimble presentation for violin, double bass, clarinet, bassoon and French horn, it leaned right into the character’s mischief and humour, with the arrangement of occasional phrases at times foreshadowing Gershwin. It was a witty, entertaining performance of this very attractive piece.

Despite the Albert Hall’s febrile climate, the audience was in a cheerful and receptive mood for the feature performance of the much-loved Beethoven Septet in E Flat. This is a piece each musician has played in other venues in other countries and in other ensembles, and while this could have resulted in some awkward idiosyncrasies, it all came together beautifully under subtle direction from Williams.

Beethoven’s symphonic aspirations are clearly in evidence (as are his signature codas), and his use of single woodwind and horn was innovative for the time.

There was great pleasure to be found in the clarinet (played by Alan Vivian) featuring almost as prominently as the strings. Solid support from Anthony de Battista on viola, Patrick Suthers on cello and the evergreen Max McBride on double bass allowed Ben Hoadley’s bassoon and Robert Johnson’s French horn to shine.

This was an enormously entertaining and engaging concert from outstanding musicians, and it is a tribute to the management and reputation of the CSO that Canberra has been able to attract them.