City musicians came to the country last weekend.
A delightful string quartet and a bassoonist came to Daylesford’s Convent Gallery event space last Friday evening with smiling faces seemingly as excited as the audience. It was their first live concert in many, many months, as it was also for the capacity audience.
The event sold out quickly and a second performance was added for last Sunday afternoon.
The event was the wold premiere of “The Song of the Wombat” by Adelaide composer Rachel Bruerville. The solo bassoon was performed by Jack Schiller, principal bassoon of the Melbourne Symphony Orchestra. The bassoon, a sometimes a sombre, sometimes a comic-sounding instrument, was chosen by the composer to capture a young wombat’s short bouts of energetic playfulness between long day-time snoozes.
The concert also featured the Zephyr String Ensemble, a group of young, professional musicians, variously members of the Melbourne Chamber Orchestra, the Melbourne Symphony Orchestra and the celebrated Australian Chamber Orchestra. The quartet played with an intimacy, fun and joy so appropriate to the venue.
The concert was a benefit for the proposed Central Victoria Wildlife Hospital. The animal hospital is urgently needed for the rescue and nurture of local wildlife, injured, lost, and separated from their animal family, ill or diseased. It is hoped that such a facility will assist in attracting qualified Veterinarians to the Shire.
It seemed everyone drove home with a lighter heart, refreshed.
