The Adelaide Symphony Orchestra in Adelaide City’s Arts Quarter
A French horn trips up and down the scales and a violinist slips through a few bars bursting with short notes while a horde of other performers prepare to unite as one. The Adelaide Symphony Orchestra is about to begin a rehearsal day, and, while this is surely at the classical end of entertainment, the eighty musicians and twenty staff have really added to the sense of Hindley Street becoming the city’s arts and entertainment quarter. In their new home, things have turned full circle, because almost a century ago there would have been a giant cinema screen behind them and a ten piece pit ensemble beneath it.
As we dropped by to get footage for our Postcards story, the boss was famed British conductor Christopher Hogwood. The equipment is very expensive, of course, but this is another day at the office for the members of this acclaimed orchestra. They arrive along Hindley Street before its daytime personality gets buzzing, heading for what was West’s Cinema with its unmistakably art deco street face. In the 1930’s, it was proclaimed as the “Theatre of Tomorrow”, but now its revamped vast interior is the rehearsal and performance space called the Grainger Studio. His music will be celebrated in the inaugural Percy Grainger Festival in October, 2003. After all, he is one of Australia’s best known composers, he visited his mother’s Adelaide family often and his father designed the Albert Bridge at the Zoo and Auchendarroch, the Barr Smith mansion in Mt Barker. He donated to Adelaide’s first orchestra and he is buried in the city’s West Terrace Cemetery. That is worth a studio! And more, as we learned when violinist Hilary Bruer took us on a quick tour.
“This is Percy’s”, she explained, mingling with fellow musicians in their lunch and coffee room upstairs. Emerging from a suite of support staff offices, we found Hilary has an extra reason for feeling at home here. The expansive and original art deco look in the circular foyer took us back to her family connection.
“My grandfather was on the team of architects who designed the cinema in the 1930’s. It was an adventurous project, with flowing curves along the walls of the cinema and hidden neon lights that changed colour during the intermission. Some of the plaster work is still intact in the foyers, especially in the ceiling.”
Beneath, we could see the lunch crowd arriving in the new Hindley Street restaurant/café, Tempo. Coming in from the street, many patrons must experience a sense of déjà vu, as there is still a strong hint of the time when they may have seen “Lawrence of Arabia” here. The big difference now, however, is the arrival of George and Renato, who bring a lifetime of restaurant experience with them. Their mum and dad began the legendary Amalfi Ristorante in the East End more than twenty years ago. The orchestra members are delighted with the quality of their front-of-house “canteen”, and so are city tertiary campus staff and arts workers along Hindley. The evening trade comes for genuine Italian cuisine with a modern touch. Hilary pointed out that living in the West End has a lot more advantages, too.
“When you walk out into Hindley Street, there are all kinds of places to eat, really special bookshops, a great CD shop, and fascinating arts and craft workshops and studios.”
Calling into a sunlit space down a lane towards North Terrace, we found Gray Hawk working on a display set of table and chairs for an interstate furniture studio. His workshop looks timeless in the tradition of the artisan, but his pieces are very contemporary and individual. His mini-show-space is within a cadenza of a surprising assortment of galleries of ethnic crafts and contemporary art. Architects’ offices mingle with artists’ studios, and in the back lane of the ASO’s new home, a besser block cinema is brilliantly transformed for an advertising agency. The whole complex makeover scored the Adelaide Prize of architecture contributing to the city.
Meanwhile during the orchestra’s lunch break, it was time for my annual audition to join the Adelaide Brass Quintet. They generously pulled out a jazzy arrangement of “Ain’t Misbehavin’” for me to accompany them on snare drum and brushes. Alas, another rejection, despite a spirited and extended finale. Something about having to be able to blow it, they said.
I was clearly destined to remain an occasional visitor to the West End, which has been on the move through the 1990’s. The formerly rundown and faded quarter now has a University campus, a big TAFE component and an architecturally challenging art and drama school to complement the arts push. It took a while, but with the arrival of Tempo for a good coffee out front, and the home of the Adelaide Symphony Orchestra within, it’s all building to a crescendo. Hindley Street has come of age as the Arts Quarter.
Adelaide Symphony Orchestra
Grainger Studio
91 Hindley Street
Adelaide, South Australia, 5000The Grainger Festival
6-19 October 2003.Phone inquiries 08 8233 6233
Tempo Café
restaurant / bar / functions
91 Hindley Street
Adelaide, South Australia, 5000Breakfast and lunch Monday to Friday
Dinner Monday to SaturdayPhone 08 8410 6699
