In February 2026 Camerata, the Queensland-based chamber orchestra, tour Carl Vine’s Smith’s Alchemy for strings to Toowoomba and Brisbane as part of their Classic Alchemy programme, alongside music by Johannes Brahms, Ethel Smyth, and Michael Patterson.
The 15-minute work is an arrangement for string orchestra of Vine’s third string quartet. The intention of the original work was to transform four stringed instruments into a single "super" instrument while capitalising on their natural singing qualities – what Vine calls “a kind of aural alchemy”. The potential to "share" difficult techniques across more than one instrument, Vine has noted in its version for string orchestra, has in many ways liberated the music, allowing greater emphasis on its lyric qualities.
Smith’s Alchemy was recently recorded as part of The Enchanted Loom, the ABC Classics orchestral portrait showcasing Vine’s symphonic catalogue with the Melbourne Symphony conducted by the late Sir Andrew Davis. In September 2022 the piece toured with Australian Chamber Orchestra as part of their programme A String Celebration; they premiered the work in 2001, and subsequently gave numerous of its national debuts, including at the Concertgebouw, Snape Maltings, Schloss Grafenegg, and Tanglewood Festival.
It is among Vine’s most popular works, with over one hundred performances to date, and has been taken up by Kremerata Baltica, Sinfonietta Riga, and all of Australia’s major orchestras. In 2005 it was choreographed by Graeme Murphy for the all-Vine ballet The Silver Rose, created for the Bayerisches Staatsballet. It made another appearance on the dance stage with Queensland Ballet in 2011 in Gareth Belling’s With Attitude.
In May 2024 Camerata were joined by guitarist Karin Schaupp to tour the string orchestra version of Vine’s quintet Endless. The 16 ½-minute piece, cast in one movement, is an arrangement of the work premiered in February 2023 by Schaupp and the Flinders Quartet, debuting at the City Recital Hall, Sydney, with a subsequent Australian tour presented by Musica Viva. It celebrated the life of Jennifer Bates, a professional architect, project manager and dedicated environmentalist. “At its heart is a reflective elegy”, writes Vine, “followed by a celebratory dance inspired by Jen's much-loved salsa.”