Paul Kildea, Artistic Director of Musica Viva Australia, writes:
'On the eve of this year’s Adelaide Festival, composer Liza Lim, cellist James Morley (a South Australia boy), and I pulled up at Chalk Hill winery in the McLaren Vale. Liza was days away from the Australian premiere of her fabulous new cello concerto with soloist Nicolas Altstaedt and the Melbourne Symphony Orchestra. James was in the middle of a dizzying array of concerts and repertory. I was there for the wine. Oh, and the Festival performance of our collaboration with First Nations singer-songwriter Jess Hitchcock, the Penny Quartet, and eleven different Australian composers, each of whom had chosen a single Jess song and created a new and personal arrangement.
'Upon our arrival, winemaker Tom Harvey poured us a glass of Vermentino, which set the mood for the evening to follow. I don’t think I’ve ever been at a more relaxed weaving together of music, wine, food and conversation, the one melding into the other as we all talked and thought about the overlaps between culture, agriculture and climate. James’s performance of Liza’s 'Cello Playing – as Meteorology' was an inspiring reminder of the power of art to shift our thinking.
'A few days later I heard James play Kodály and Ravel in Melbourne, and then a few days after that, I heard Nicolas in Liza’s concerto. It made me think of bounty – a crop of grapes; a new addition to the repertory, as Nic announced; our ongoing relationship with the canon – and for a handful of moments I could pretend that civilisation is safe.'
