Canberra International Music Festival / Concert 15, “Ahimsa: Meditations on Gandhi”, The Fitters’ Workshop, May 6. Reviewed by
CLINTON WHITE.
“AHIMSA” in the Hindu, Buddhist, and Jainist tradition, is “respect for all living things and avoidance of violence towards others”.
Such was Mahatma Gandhi’s mantra of non-violent protest.
But, with the festival’s theme of “The Idea of Vienna”, it’s not immediately clear how even the title of the composition performed in this concert, much less its music, would have a connection to the musical traditions and culture of Vienna, or, more especially, Austria.
If that connection seems tenuous, it should not be, for this was a concert of exceptional
Together again in what feels like a family affair
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Musicians may congregate in metropolises and vie for scant playing opportunities, but they also form communities that cohere like families â largely minus the sibling rivalry. The musicians and composers involved in the latest instalment of the Paul Cutlan String Project underscore this feeling of community, just as the music itself carries a strong sense of the leaderâs humanity.
Living, the second album to combine Cutlanâs reeds, Brett Hirstâs bass and a string quartet, was recorded in March, a week before the pandemic eliminated such activities, and this was the music presented here.