Camerata: Your Eternal Memories

This evening of music, memories and nostalgia from Camerata – Queensland’s Chamber Orchestra felt like an early festive present, chock full as it was of sixpence surprises, glacé cherries and Christmas cracker gags. In fact, the format (curated by lead Violinist, Brendan Joyce) is ripe to be revived year after year to celebrate any festival – from Lunar New Year to Diwali – or as an end-of-year treat. The theme was inspired by John Tavener’s ‘Eternal Memory’, leading to a wonderful mix of music for Camerata’s 20-piece string section, and memories of the group’s establishment 38 years ago by Elizabeth Morgan at a venue not far from Kingaroy. Memories were also contributed by Camerata audiences, Clive James, Sam Everingham and Michael Gow – in excerpts expertly read by one of Brisbane’s best performers, Barbara Lowing. Musical pieces included Dvorák’s ‘Serenade for Strings’, Mozart’s ‘Cassation No. 1 in G Major’, Corelli’s ‘Concerto in G Minor’, Handel’s ‘Concerto Grosso in E Minor’ and of course, Tavener’s ‘Eternal Memory’, with Karol Kowalik taking the solo cello to rousing result. The first Act ended with the vibrant Jonny Ng swapping his violin for a typewriter to become the percussion star of Leroy Anderson’s ‘The Typewriter’ which delightfully ends with the typewritten pages flung into the air with a flourish! Another highlight was Anna Clyne’s ‘Within Her Arms’ which allowed the strings to cascade over one another to create a truly beautiful presentation of the piece. One special inclusion was a Camerata fan’s memory of seeing Therese Joyce sing in an Ayr Choral Society performance of ‘Sorry Her Lot’ from Gilbert & Sullivan’s HMS Pinafore. That soprano just happened to be Brendan’s Mum and there was only one recording of Therese singing – one that young Brendan had made with his first cassette player. The recording was digitalised and the chamber orchestra accompanied the performance in a truly memorable moment.

Adding a glitter ball of musical jewels to the evening was Brisbane Festival (and international) favourite, singer-songwriter Kate Miller-Heidke, who is one of those rare performers who brings an air of excitement to the stage. I guess it’s called star quality. And Kate treated us to her ethereal vocals with three songs in each half of the programme. First was ‘The Last Day on Earth’ and ‘Where’ from her opera The Rabbits, and three new songs, making their debuts at Brisbane Festival.

The readings by Barbara Lowing were delightful, seamless segues to musical interludes by the wonderful Camerata strings. I love her version of Gwen’s speech from Michael Gow’s Away – the perfect holiday season antidote: “If you want to have Christmas, you’d better get started now so we can get it over with!” Some selections, such as Clive James’s poetic memories of the old ‘Dunny Man’ were hilarious but a bit incongruous and he threatened to outstay his welcome. The final story about Cindy the Cat, as read by Barbara, was another side-splitter and led to a funky version of the ‘Pink Panther theme’ by Henry Mancini. It was lovely, but the real standing ovation moment had already passed with Kate’s ‘Zero Gravity’ – which is in my own special musical memory box from 2019, setting my alarm to see her perform her song at Eurovision. We were all expecting an encore, which alas was not to come. For me, Brisbane Festival is all about showcasing homegrown talent, and experimenting with collaborations. Those boxes were ticked by this format’s mix of memories and music, which certainly has something that can be reinvented for future iterations. But when you have a star like Kate, I think she should be given the closing number.

This one-night-only performance was specially curated for Brisbane Festival.

Beth Keehn

Find out more: www.brisbanefestival.com.au

Photographs by Alex Jamieson