Starburst

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https://www.omegaensemble.com.au/starburst

Date Reviewed: 12/02/2026

I’m no classical music expert, and Starburst by Omega Ensemble proves how little that matters when the storytelling is this vivid. Music is, after all, a universal language. Over the course of 90 minutes, Starburst carries an audience ready for discovery at City Recital Hall, through a constellation of moods, landscapes, and unexpected delights, living up to its name: an explosion of colour and energy, with each piece offering its own distinct world to step into.

The program opens with Shostakovich’s Concerto No. 1 for Piano, Trumpet and Strings. Bold, mischievous, and full of restless sparkle, it sets the tone immediately, drawing the audience in from the first burst of sound. Pianist Vatche Jambazian creates extraordinary music, with his back to the audience, completely absorbed in the Steinway on stage, while trumpeter David Elton, of the Sydney Symphony Orchestra, delivers lines that cut through the hall with radiant precision. Their interplay builds a momentum that lifts the room out of the present moment and into something almost cinematic.

A shift in atmosphere arrives with Gerald Finzi’s Clarinet Concerto, its opening lines unfolding like a warm breath in winter. The clarinet’s voice, lyrical, unhurried, invites the hall into a shared stillness. The music to me feels like a gentle stroll through quiet woods, sunlight filtering through branches, each phrase a step deeper into calm.

Jessie Montgomery’s Starburst follows, aptly named. Vivid and full of energy, the piece shimmers and sparkles, carrying the audience from serenity to bustle. The shift is exhilarating, like travelling across time through sound.

A charming surprise arrives when Jambazian pauses after the audience’s feverish foot tapping and rapturous applause, smiles, and offers a special treat. What follows is a tribute to his ancestry: an Armenian nursery rhyme played with such warmth and nostalgia that the entire audience leans in as one. Simple, heartfelt, and utterly disarming, it feels like being welcomed into a family memory. The delight in the hall is palpable.

The world premiere of Lachlan Skipworth’s A Turning Sky closes the program, offering sweeping arcs of sound that feel both expansive and introspective. Its shifting harmonies evoke the mood of an underground jazz bar, smoky, intimate, full of quiet conversations between instruments. The dialogue between clarinet and trumpet unfolds like two perspectives on the same horizon, sometimes aligned, sometimes diverging, always aware of each other. This glorious finish leaves the hall in rapturous applause.

Whether you’re a seasoned classical listener or someone like me who just loves being moved by sound, Starburst is the kind of performance that stays with you long after you leave the hall. Omega Ensemble, founded by clarinettist David Rowden, champions adventurous, memorable music?making, and Starburst delivers on that vision. 

Reviewed by Ketvi