Australian Chamber Orchestra | Mountain

October 30, 2025, Hamer Hall, Melbourne, VIC

The Occasion 

Falling on the eve of All Hallows’ Eve, Mountain was well-timed for a little seasonal “trick or treat.” Halloween, as it is currently known, has recently found firmer footing in Australian life – more a playful import than a cultural fixture, but growing nonetheless. The performance also arrived in the midst of the lively spring racing carnival, which culminates with the Melbourne Cup on Tuesday, adding a festive hum to the city. 

The Venue 

Hamer Hall, nestled within Melbourne’s Arts Centre precinct beside the Yarra River and a short walk from Flinders Street Station, has become a landmark for music lovers. When I was young, the city’s main concert venue was the Dallas Brooks Hall, long before Southbank was transformed by casinos, theatres and cultural spaces. Opened in 1982 as the Melbourne Concert Hall and renamed in 2004 for Premier Sir Rupert Hamer, the venue remains a cornerstone of the city’s artistic landscape. A major refurbishment completed in 2012 enhanced its acoustics, technical capacity, and public spaces. Its interior, designed by John Truscott, draws inspiration from Australia’s gemstone deposits – evoking a vast underground cave bathed in warm, amber light. The hall’s iconic spire, part of Roy Grounds’ original Arts Centre design, still commands the skyline. 

The Performers 

Founded in 1975 by John Painter, the Australian Chamber Orchestra (ACO) has evolved into one of Australia’s most distinguished musical exports. Since 1989, Richard Tognetti has served as Artistic Director, shaping the ensemble into a daring and distinctive force. What began as a small group rehearsing above a shop in Kings Cross now commands international stages, performing in world-class venues across Europe, Asia and the Americas. Known for its virtuosity, energy and inventive programming, the ACO blends classical masterpieces with contemporary works, collaborations across art forms and bold multimedia projects. In 2025, it celebrates its 50th anniversary, a milestone of creativity and excellence. 

The Presentation 

In recent years, the ACO has embraced multimedia performance to attract broader and younger audiences. Mountain is one of the most ambitious examples of this vision. Created in collaboration with BAFTA-nominated filmmaker Jennifer Peedom (Sherpa, River), Mountain merges live orchestral performance with stunning cinematography, narration and filmic storytelling. Peedom and Tognetti weave together imagery and soundscapes capturing the serenity, magnitude and awe of the world’s great peaks, where music becomes an equal partner to the visuals. The film features breathtaking footage from some of the world’s finest high-altitude cinematographers, with narration written by Robert Macfarlane and voiced by Willem Dafoe. The result is an immersive experience that stirs both heart and imagination. 

The Music 

Full credit goes to the ACO’s creative team for a beautifully designed online program, an elegant companion to the evening itself. The performance unfolds through a wide-ranging musical tapestry: works by Peter Sculthorpe, Chopin, Grieg, Vivaldi, Arvo Pärt, and even Beethoven’s immortal Violin Concerto, alongside Tognetti’s own compositions, which frame the concert – four at the opening and four to close. At first glance, the program may seem an eclectic mix, but as the evening progresses, the seemingly disparate pieces coalesce into a cohesive emotional journey – binding sound, image, and story into something both visceral and transcendent. 

The Performance 

There was so much to enjoy and admire about the entire evening’s entertainment. A better title for the concert might well have been “Richard Tognetti and the Mountain.” This was a virtuoso masterclass in conducting to click track, watching visuals on an iPhone, and, for good measure, delivering sublime performances of Vivaldi’s Four Seasons (highlights), Arvo Pärt’s Fratres (part flat but absolutely magnificent), and the glorious slow movement of Beethoven’s Violin Concerto as a coda to the concert. In addition, Richard also composed many of the pieces – beautifully cinematic works that complemented the action perfectly. The performance by pianist Tamara-Anna Cislowska was equally joyful, particularly in Chopin’s Prelude in F-sharp major, several Sculthorpe works, Pärt’s extraordinary Für Alina, and a transcendent closing with the slow movement from Beethoven’s mighty Emperor Concerto. It was a delight to see the Australian Chamber Orchestra in full flight, with the addition of a grand piano, all clad in black, and standing throughout proceedings. A large screen dominated the visual sight lines, and we heard the familiar, dulcet tones of Hollywood actor Willem Dafoe as narrator. The narrative, at best, was fairly sparse and thin, there is only so much that can be said about mountains. Yes, they are exhilarating. Yes, they are beautiful. And yes, in recent times, humanity has both attempted and succeeded in conquering them. We were made fully aware of the seduction, risk, peril and lethality attached to mountains. We witnessed extraordinary adrenaline junkies, daredevils, thrill seekers, and lunatics – and the new, grotesque phenomenon of tourists queueing to climb Mount Everest. Certainly, for those of a disposition seeking thrills and flirting with danger, this is a film for them. But for this writer, the delight lay in the marriage of music and film, the execution of the score, and the choices of repertoire. Particularly noteworthy, a constant of excellence, Richard Tognetti and his ACO, capably supported by his mountains. Bravo!