2020 marks the 25th anniversary of the Southern Cross Soloists as an ensemble, but it’s fair to say that they haven’t been able to celebrate it quite the way they intended. In fact, this performance was supposed to be a completely different program featuring Slava Grigoryan playing guitar, but that’s since been shifted to February next year. Continuing the change-ups, SXS usually performs at QPAC in reverse mode, playing to an audience seated in the choir stands behind the stage. Instead, tonight they played to a socially-distanced audience in QPAC’s usual set-up; different for the players, but not so different for the audience.

Southern Cross Soloists. Photo supplied

I’m somewhat tempted to copy-and-paste some of the review of the last performance of the Southern Cross Soloists that I saw in November last year when I found myself enthralled by the music-making, but frustrated at the lackadaisical time-management that found the whole performance running 20 minutes over. This performance had exactly the same issue (and even the same amount of time over!), and I’d suggest the same solution – cut a piece or two. The concert began with Telemann’s Trio Sonata in D...