Dancing to the Tremors of Time is a stand-out contribution to this country’s piano literature…

Dancing to the Tremors of Time…is almost 29 minutes of the most virtuosic pianism you will ever hear…

…a single, frenetic movement that reflects the painting’s nightmarish figures, Colbert’s piece is explosive, exhilarating and exhausting…

…starts out virtuosically and winds itself up from there in this thrilling performance by Phoebe Green. There is no respite, as the piece races inexorably towards a splendidly abrupt ending – and yet there is more to the work than just virtuosity…

…a strong, two movement work…bustles through great swathes of notes, out of which many moments of interest flare and dissipate…the obsessive busyness is briefly and magically projected into a larger space… At the end, the energy of the work metamorphoses into lyricism; as the massed-quartet texture unravels, space opens up once again – this time for a beautiful line of slow moving notes on the cello

…a very beautiful piece for strings…Arcko Symphonic Ensemble has championed this work strongly and deservedly… it is a piece that is now somewhat overdue for wider recognition as among the finest string orchestra works by any Australian composer.

…a wild ride… a fixation with the fast and the loud, together with a massive density…Yet the moments where the textures suddenly thin out…or where the effective tempo temporarily slows…are imbued with a dramatic power that is directly related to the mass and energy of the more maniacal passages.

… an uncompromising voice, both enervating and exciting to hear in an age when contemporary composition is finding it difficult to sustain interest, let alone an audience. In that regard, …like a Maelstrom represents the sort of initiative for which the Arcko organization exists.

Restless, uneasy and gripping from the outset, it was notable for the development of an argument, an instrumental discussion, that repaid concentration.

…rapid, quicksilver music… The keyboard dominated the initial bars with a series of trills that emphasised the basis on which the piece is constructed…but the hard work fell to (the) guitarist who negotiated a massive, demanding solo…

…is rich in clashing colours but at the same time the scoring is not densely packed. It is a work that should remain in active repertoire…

…revealed in essence a reflection on more varied sonorous possibilities, an exploration of timbres elaborating the grades of pianissimo in a continuous search for new effects

Last and largest on the program was Like a Maelstrom. Premiered in 2015, this second performance of Colbert’s double concerto for piano and trumpet gave the ensemble a chance to launch the live recording they made of the work’s premiere.

The combination of mandolin, guitar, percussion and harpsichord perfectly suits this music of rapid, obsessively ornamented figures…

Certainly the most challenging music presented, this work invited the audience into a mysterious and abstract sound world. The only piece on the programme to deal meaningfully with space and silence, layers of isolated pizzicato morphed into thematic fragments that explored and mapped out a delicate and complex web of events.

…Its pointillist style and rapid transference of motifs and trills between instruments brought about some scintillating effects. The extended guitar solo was vigourously played…and the work’s jagged textures were underpinned by…sensitive percussion…

…a fond reminder of the extraordinary energy that characterized Melbourne’s compositional scene in the 1980s. This is music that is unforgiving, obsessive, saturated, as well as carefully controlled, precise and ambitious…

…intriguingly titled Slap, an engrossing piece in which the [bass] clarinet simulates the harsh and raucous squawks and warbles of some exotic, angry fowl.

…intense and dedicated musicianship…Phoebe Green gave a remarkably poised performance of Colbert’s Torque for solo viola…the piece was a tour de force of quite contrapuntal measures of virtuosic playing…

…Proxima for string quartet…was relentless with a solid sense of conversation between each of the four players while they yet maintained determined, individual lines…Silo Quartet worked hard, delivering a flawless, unified sound over the complex inner lines

…attained a great sense of suspended beauty…Colbert’s floating in the void is intended as a fairly other-worldly experience. In the program notes he invites us to listen with our eyes closed. It’s hard to do that—watching each player take up his or her part and pass the music around the ensemble is too exciting.

…hero work of the night was a new work, commissioned by Arcko… Like a Maelstrom. And like a maelstrom it was…Colbert wrought an extraordinarily difficult concerto for trumpet (Bruno Siketa) and piano (Peter Dumsday) swirling amid fierce playing from 15 string players and two percussionists.  ‘Difficult, demanding and uncompromising’ was the order of the day.

..Colbert’s response to urban dysfunction…pulsated with the rhythms of alienation.

…the fifth in a series of agitated pieces, was the work that sounded as if it might have the most consistent and forceful personality while suffering most from limited rehearsal time.