<<  -- 5 --  Malcolm Tattersall    ALL GOOD THINGS ...

Attempting to cover so much music in three articles means leaving out rather a lot, and I know I have said very little about performance standards. The reason is simply that they have been so consistently good that it seemed more useful to talk about the music, much of which will be as new to many of my readers as it was to the festival-goers. I'm also sorry that I have hardly mentioned the ancillary events, the Reef Talks, Winterschool, Festival Talks, Orpheus Island trip, Outback Tour and Chef's Dinner. All I can add now is that they did take place and all seem to have gone off well.

The previous instalment of my serial report left a question unanswered -- could anything surpass Seulle? Well, no other event came close (though, to be fair, the Orpheus Island concert may have done so if I had managed to attend). However, I will treasure memories of individual items in many concerts: the Mozart Piano Concerto and Clarinet Quintet, Ulpirra, The Voice of the Whale, Arafura Dances, the Kodály Cello Sonata, Harrison's Suite for Violin and Strings (I wonder if the version with gamelan has been recorded?), Toru's Mist and more. There will be memories of the performers, too: Corey Cerovsek, Ami Hakuno (especially in contemporary repertoire), Diana Doherty's dancing, Ian Swensen's boyish charm on stage, Meng-chieh Liu in the Shostakovich concerto, Marshall McGuire and many others.

The festival as a whole was as individual as each of its predecessors but no less enjoyable. I'm sure I'll be able to say the same this time next year -- well, nearly. The festival next year is a week later: put 6 -- 15 July 2007 in your diaries now.