Concert Program

“ Natalie Williams has a spectacularly evolved gift for tapping into a universally shared pathos that speaks to an audience, even on a single hearing, with profundity and depth. – Limelight

Following PFSMF’s time-honoured tradition of championing brilliant young performers, we present the Festival debut of the Wattleseed Ensemble. HOME is a concert that spans repertoire from the medieval to the present, crossing from classical into traditional folk music, breathing new life into the vintage versions of the violin, viola, and violoncello. Through this carefully woven program, the audience is led through a myriad of reflections on “home” that imbue this diverse collection of music. Listeners are invited to consider what defines their home – place, community, or natural environment.

HOME is a concept that is inextricably tied to being human, meaning different things to different people, at different times. This program explores a religious home through music by Hildegard von Bingen and Johann Sebastian Bach; a national home through the baroque music of Arcangelo Corelli (Italy) and Johan Helmich Roman (Sweden), alongside traditional Nordic folk music; and finally, the idea of our planet and environment as home, through the contemporary Australian works of Alice Chance, and a world premiere from Natalie Williams.

German born Port Fairy photographer Berit Hampel creates unique and multi-layered images inspired by fairytales from around the world, surreal art, and our natural environment. This concert showcases Berit’s capture of the many moods of Tower Hill from her “landscapes” series, and spellbinding images of Killarney Beach. The artist writes – “Inspired by the ever changing mood and light of the extinct volcano crater of Tower Hill,  I am trying to capture the beauty of this special place nestled between the coastal town of Port Fairy and the Irish village of Koroit.”

DOWNLOAD PROGRAM NOTES – WATTLESEED ENSEMBLE: HOME