Music for percussion is less about melody and harmony and more about the many other qualities of classy music-making – expression, rhythm, sound, harmonics, emotion. In this concert, the ‘sorceress of percussion’, Claire Edwardes, delivered all those qualities, and more besides, in spades, enchanting her capacity audience with sounds they weren’t expecting and perhaps did not even know existed.

Claire Edwardes. Photo © Monty Coles

As curator of the CSO’s Australian Series, Australian composer Matthew Hindson always brings together some of the best young talent Australia has to offer, introducing audiences to new music that challenges, excites and educates.  As was the case for this concert, it usually happens that at least some of the composers are present at performances.  That every audience chair is filled at every concert is testament to Hindson’s success.

In a program entirely for percussion, written by Australian composers and performed by one Australian artist – hence the concert title – the oldest of the seven works performed was from 2016.

The concert began with Ether Lines, which Edwardes herself wrote only last year for the most intriguing Waterphone and, yes, water is involved. Using a range of implements to...