Review: Theodore Kuchar and Friends on 22nd July 2025
Pure Musical Magic
Concert review from the Townsville Bulletin on 25th July 2025
In a day and age when renowned concert venues throughout the world battle for audiences of the past, St. James Cathedral in Townsville was the location for an overflowing audience necessitating the addition of portable chairs among unfortunate standees.
The Great Barrier Reef Orchestra has in the past several years established itself as Townsville’s, and North Queensland’s, most progressive cultural organization, a musical entity transforming the local existence. This week alone, the organization will have touched many after Tuesday evening and this coming Sunday afternoon’s concert in Queens Gardens, which may reach a potential audience in excess of 10,000 attendees.
Tuesday evening’s concert was a diverse presentation extending beyond the standard fare of today’s symphony orchestras. Entitled Theodore Kuchar and Friends, we were privileged to an evening of true chamber music, yet in different forms.
The evening opened with Dvořák’s Sonatina in G major, Op. 100 as performed by the distinguished Ukrainian violinist, Oksana Hretchyn and Townsville’s much-appreciated pianist, Joey Batterham. Their performance was a technical tour de force which presented artistry, highlighted by impeccable intonation and masterful tonal control, by this exceptional violinist and touched the composer’s deeply Slavic soul, composed during a period of painful nostalgia while based in the United States.
Next came one of the true warhorses of the chamber music literature, Robert Schumann’s Piano Quintet in E flat major, Op. 44. The two performers in the Dvořák were partnered by violinist Olivia Jung, violist Theodore Kuchar and cellist Carla Mulligan. This was music-making of great exuberance and technical security, the performers’ enthusiasm and commitment always evident. Jo Batterham’s nearly 30 minutes of non-stop activity and Kuchar’s viola filling the Cathedral with the sonority of a trombone in the second movement propelled the ensemble to a rousing conclusion, readily acknowledged by the unanimous standing ovation.
After the interval, the repertoire moved back in time by nearly half a century, chamber music in a sense but with considerably larger instrumental forces than in the first-half of the program. In these two instances, Karl Stamitz (1745-1801) was represented by his Sinfonia Concertante in D major for Violin, Viola and String Orchestra and Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (1756-1791) by his Divertimento in D major, K. 131 for Flute, Oboe, Bassoon, Four Horns and Strings. Here, the larger required forces were represented by a sizable number of members of the Great Barrier Reef Orchestra. In the Stamitz, Hretchyn and Kuchar guided and inspired their colleagues with virtuosic authority in what may easily have been the Australian premiere of this charming work.
Mozart’s genius at 16-years-of-age was presented with conviction and security in the six-movement work by the conductor-less ensemble, totaling 25 musicians.
The Great Barrier Reef Orchestra has played a major role in Townsville’s musical development for over two decades but during the past two years has assumed a far greater local and regional significance. The orchestra shares each of its invited guest artists with many of our local schools. It touches thousands of listeners well beyond its devout followers by presenting outdoor concerts in public venues while collaborating with and supporting local theatrical, choral and dance organizations. It now serves as not only a symphony orchestra but as an organizational foundation for musical presentations of varying types.
As Townsville’s musical life and potentially far-reaching cultural perception is in the process of undergoing its most significant change for over the past three decades the Great Barrier Reef Orchestra embraces its role and responsibility in furthering the locality’s growth and development and plans to serve as the driving-force of cultural innovation in the future.