After a seemingly endless hibernation period, clocking in at around 100 days, the Primrose Potter Salon of the Melbourne Recital Centre could finally open its doors to the public to display the fruits of the 2021 Merlyn Myer Music Commission. This year’s recipient, composer/performer Nat Bartsch was joined by Melbourne’s own Inventi Ensemble to present a poignant portrait of chamber works, including the premiere of the title work The Glasshouse; a suite composed with help from the commission. The work refers to six photographs by 19th century photographer Julia Cameron, each image influencing a movement of the suite which were projected alongside images of the composer and ensemble taken by regional Victorian photographer Suzie Blake.

Nat Bartsch and Inventi Ensemble. Image © Suzie Blake.

Cozy, comforting and candid come to mind when one thinks of Nat Bartsch. Her music, tamed in the harmonic air of jazz and fluid filigrees of minimalism, is unabashedly intimate. Each phrase echoes persistent patterns of progression, with tenderness and warmth abundant in the textures of the works. Nat’s background in jazz piano certainly pollinates her classical language, filling the music...