A new music festival arises in the Barossa Valley just as the spring buds burst forth from the vines.
It is an apt celebration and, for many, sweet relief that the Barossa once again can begin to host music festivals - for which it had a splendid history through the 90s and early 2000s.
It is beginning modestly.
Its organiser, Margaret Lehmann, calls it “a micro festival” and says let’s not get carried away on the idea of a big festival - quite yet.
Nonetheless, there is an air of excitement.
Small is beautiful.
Barossa Baroque and Beyond is a two-concert one-day event on Sunday October 4.
Margaret Lehmann has conceived and nurtured it as one of the forms in which her much celebrated winemaker husband, the late Peter Lehmann, may be remembered. Peter and Margaret were renowned as hosts to musicians and musical events throughout the history of the Barossa Music Festival and, although the Peter Lehmann Winery now has been sold, its Old Redemption goes on as one of the best event venues in the Valley.
Acclaimed opera singer Kirsty Harms, now also a lawyer who has settled in the Valley, has been working with Margaret in bringing the events together along with the distinguished musician and music manager Reuben Zylberszpic and, says Margaret, lots of Barossa people “doing what they are good at”.
Starring in the concerts will be celebrated guitarists, Slava and Leonard Grigoryan along with oboist Grant Dickson, cellist Sharon Draper, bassoonist Jackie Hansen, violinist, Cameron Hill, viola player, Stephen King, clarinettist Dean Newcomb and, most particularly in the afternoon concert, Josh van Konkelenberg playing the organ.
The organ is the component of sheer charm in the afternoon concert which is being presented in the Organ Gallery of the Tanunda Arts Centre. Therein rises to immense, exquisitely decorated heights, the glorious old William Hill & Son grand pipe organ which graced Adelaide Town Hall from the 1880s until 1990 when it was, some may say, rudely discarded. Barossans rescued the instrument, all 2,260 pipes of it, raised hundreds of thousands of dollars and, with expertise from master organ builder George Stevens and more than 20 years of diligence and devotion by musical artisans extraordinaire, restored the organ to nigh pristine condition. Certainly, it is now one of the prides of the Barossa.
Beautiful baroque music will come forth from the organ in a program which includes Bach, Handel and Haydn - and, of course, in Barossa tradition, wines for the purchase at interval.
The evening concert, complete with food and wine, goes from Baroque to Beyond. It is to be performed in Old Redemption at the Lehmann winery with table settings and foods for sale by Elli Beer.
Jane Doyle will compere the show which has been described as a “musical smorgasbord” featuring music by Piazzola, Vivaldi, Towner, Lovelady, Kurt Weill and Bach.
Tickets are available at www.barossa.com or on (08) 8563 0600
$40 ($30 concession) Concert 1 - 3pm Sunday Oct 4
$50 Concert 2 - 6pm Sunday Oct 4
Samela Harris
