Music / A Musical Awakening, Australian Chamber Orchestra, directed by Timo-Veikko Valve. At Llewellyn Hall, September 13. Reviewed by LEN POWER.

With blossoms and a hint of spring in the air, the Australian Chamber Orchestra’s concert of uplifting music celebrated the awakening that this time of the year promises.

Directed by cellist, Timo Veikko-Valve, and with Genevieve Lacey on recorders and Simon Martin-Ellis on theorbo, the orchestra presented an atmospheric and enjoyably wide-ranging program with arrangements and works by Hildegard von Bingen, Max Richter, Melody Eötvös, Jaakko Kuusisto, Ludwig van Beethoven and Erkki Veltheim.

There was also the world premiere of a work commissioned by the ACO by Pulitzer prize-winning New York composer, David Lang, called flute and echo. The orchestra was joined by Genevieve Lacey on recorders and Simon Martin-Ellis on theorbo. This work created a beautiful and haunting soundscape with themes echoing and changing as it progressed. It was reflective, optimistic and uplifting.

Lacey and Martin-Ellis also joined the orchestra in the second half of the program for Imaginary Cities: A Baroque Fantasy, arranged by Erkki Veltheim. Inspired by Italo Calvino’s celebrated novel, Invisible Cities, Veltheim created an arrangement of works by the Venetian Baroque composers, Claudio Monteverdi, Antonio Vivaldi and Barbara Strozzi. His work successfully created the images and sounds of the city with exotic influences due to the cosmopolitan nature of the city at the time. This was a rich, visually exciting work, sparkling with melodies of far-off places and was one of the highlights of the program.

Other highlights included Finnish composer Jaakko Kuusisto’s Wiima, which evoked the nostalgic charm of a small town in Finland where a summer festival is held. This busy work was alternately melodic and dramatic, and its abrupt ending was a witty surprise.

Meraki by Australian composer, Melody Eötvös, was another rich, emotive and often jaunty work of great depth and warmth. Max Richter’s On the Nature of Daylight and Hildegarde von Bingen’s hymn, Ave, Generosa, arranged by Erkki Veltheim were also haunting works beautifully played.

The final work presented was Beethoven’s Holy Song of Thanksgiving from String Quartet in A minor, O.132. Arranged for string orchestra, its sense of renewal, recovery and serenity was the perfect end to this charming concert for a spring awakening.