Adelaide Chamber Singers channel Bach and Gubaidulina at UKARIA with Clerici and Crabb

There's something fitting about a 4:30pm start for a program built around prayer, hymn and contemplation. The Adelaide Chamber Singers, under artistic director Christie Anderson, have paired with two formidable soloists for this one: cellist Umberto Clerici and classical accordionist James Crabb, an instrumental combination that doesn't come around often and rewards close listening when it does.

The first half opens with Bach's setting of a sixteenth-century Lutheran hymn, a quiet way into an afternoon that soon turns more unsettling with John Tavener's Svyati, written for solo cello and choir and steeped in Slavonic liturgical tradition. It's a piece that asks a lot of both the ensemble and the audience, alternating hushed choral writing with Clerici's cello line carrying the emotional weight. Bach returns before interval with the Gamba Sonata No. 3 in G minor, here arranged for cello and accordion, a shift in texture that should highlight just how well Crabb's instrument can sit alongside strings.

After a 25-minute break, the second half ranges further afield. Latvian composer Ēriks Ešenvalds' Stars uses tuned wine glasses among its textures, a detail that alone makes it worth the price of admission. Australian composer Anne Cawrse sets poetry by Kate Llewellyn, and Joseph Twist turns to the words of American poet Wendell Berry, both choices that ground the program's more austere European material in something closer to home. Sofia Gubaidulina's In Croce is the boldest work on the bill, an ecstatic and piercing dialogue between cello and accordion that pulls no punches. British composer Owain Park's reimagined night prayer then eases the audience back down before Bach closes the loop with a final hymn.

At roughly two hours including interval, this is a substantial sit, but the arc from Bach to Bach via Tavener and Gubaidulina suggests a carefully considered journey rather than a grab-bag of choral favourites. Tickets range from $80 adult down to $40 for under-40s, and there's a $84 post-concert two-course dining option with the artists, with bus services running after both the concert and dinner. Worth noting: the event is currently sold out, though a waitlist remains open for those keen to try their luck.