The Australian Chamber Orchestra played to a packed out Hamer Hall in Melbourne last Monday night, in the orchestra’s first concert in its 2017 season. In a programme promising blood and holy deliverance, the orchestra managed to serve out both under the charismatic guest direction of violinist Pekka Kuusisto. The Finn’s playing was as infectious as his elfish stage charm, with Kuusisto leading the ensemble in a stylistically diverse concert ranging from the most sublime art music, to the gritty honesty of folk. Guest musician Sam Amidon made for a compelling contrast to the classical content, singing and strumming through a series of sobering folk ballads with string accompaniment, that brought the concert back down to earth.

Continuing the ACO’s unique and eclectic approach to concert curation, the night’s programme was divided into two halves, echoing the opposing themes of the concert’s title. Murder saw the interpolation of four folk songs with a string orchestra arrangement of the four movements of Janáček’s first string quartet Kreutzer Sonata.

Amidon’s raw and unaffected vocal style gave his retellings of these folk songs a powerful sincerity, with his roughness standing in perfect contrast to the warm, cultivated tone of the ACO. New York wunderkind...