Music / Kurrajong Ensemble, Greenaway Studio, Chapman, August 3. Reviewed by GRAHAM McDONALD.

The Kurrajong Ensemble is a flute and guitar trio (two flutes, one guitar) from Wagga Wagga, based at the Riverina Conservatorium of Music.

Guitarist Harold Gretton is an ex-Canberran, trained at the School of Music and is joined by flute players Fran and Keith Griffin.

The mix of instruments is an unusual one, so much of the repertoire is either arranged for the trio or written specifically for the combination.

Two of the larger works in this concert were by the Italian composer Ferdinando Carulli, a contemporary of Hummel and Beethoven, written originally for flute, violin and guitar, but easily played on two flutes. The second of these, Fantasie Op123, No1 was a particularly charming work, quoting from both Hummel and Beethoven.

The two flute players added variety with the inclusion of both an alto and bass flutes. The alto flute was used with a standard concert flute in a duet from 1989 by French composer Jean Francaix entitled Le Colloque des deux Perruches (The Conversation between two Parrots). This work cleverly mimicked bird song in six quite distinct movements, though it might have been a little too long.

The alto and bass flutes were used to good effect in Tears of Guudhamang, written by Fran Griffin for the 2024 Festival of Turtles in Cootamundra. Guudhamang is the Waradjuri word for turtle and may well have been the original word that ended up as Cootamundra. The trio starts with the alto and bass flutes before a guitar solo section allows the flautists to change to their concert flutes for a middle section before another guitar solo allows then to swap back to the alto and bass to finish. A charming work that could be listened to again.

Gretton’s solo spot was a short and interesting piece, Ultraviolet, by a young Queensland composer Tina Lyman, from whom I suspect we will hear more in the future.

The concert finished with arrangements of two Piazzolla tangos (“tangos for the ears, rather than the feet”). The first Oblivion, arranged by Gretton, was slow and evocative which Fran Griffin took a very different approach on Libertango. The guitar was used as percussion with the bass flute providing a counterpoint to the melody on the concert flute. A most enjoyable revisiting of a tune which has become a little overexposed at times and a excellent way to end a well thought through and delightfully played concert.