“HOUSE on Fire”, a tribute to painter Arthur Boyd and the third chapter in the 2014 Griffyn Fairy Tales series, was a subdued and serene offering that was somewhat unexpected given the collaboration with pop-duo, The Cashews.  

Recorded birdsong accompanied the players as they walked to the stage then gently strummed a variety of stringed instruments before singing “My Respect for You”, a musical acknowledgement to our traditional land owners.

Peter Lyon,, from The Cashews assumed compere duties but technical issues and poor microphone technique hindered his ability to appropriately explain linkages between the music and the life and times of Arthur Boyd.

It was a real struggle for the audience to catch his words and this irritation was compounded by the lack of a printed program that might have provided background explanations regarding the new works being featured.  Some of the songs were hauntingly moving and beautiful.  In “White Heat” Susan Ellis, with lovely harp accompaniment, sang of a parallel between the 2003 Canberra fires and Boyd who lost his home to fire. “Umbilical Link” by Michael Sollis told, in a satisfyingly wistful manner, of him revisiting his early childhood days in Melba.

Other songs failed to capture the imagination on first listening. “Metamorphosis” seemed overly repetitive and I failed to understand a stated connection between another tune and its association with “Sgt Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band”!

Some aspects of the concert verged on self indulgence. A period of silence was called for but there seemed little meaning to this.   Silence at remembrance commemorations has emotional significance but no similar atmosphere had been created on this occasion.

At one point the audience was asked to depart Gandel Hall and to follow single file on a stroll through the artwork “Skyspace”.  This exercise was quite different and interesting and it did attract some bemused tourists who joined the line, but it also seemed to disengage quite a few audience members who did not return to their concert seats following the wander. That was a shame as the show ended on a high with the combined forces performing two new songs from The Cashews, “Landscape Escape” and “Mountains”, both commendable tunes of a folk nature.

The Griffyn Ensemble is renowned for innovative and imaginative programming. That sometimes risky experimentation did not work as well on this occasion, perhaps highlighted by Peter Lyon conducting “little interviews” with Griffyn members during the concert. Often these were meaningless and verging on tacky and certainly lacking the sophistication normally associated with a Griffyn concert.