Highly Strung

This documentary by Scott Hicks looks at the world of classical music and the precious instruments that dominate the high-end. It is a reality of hand-crafted instruments worth millions of dollars, and the patrons that enable these hundreds of years old master works to find voice in the hands of musicians.

Hicks roughly divides his focus into three aspects. He looks at the Australian String Quartet with their mix of virtuosi and rare Guadagnini instruments, the New York-based Carpenters with their mix of high-end branding and investment strategy, and the actual process behind crafting one of these rarefied instruments.

Highly Strung certainly hits the ground running, bombarding the audience with story and information from the outset. Initially this is rather like being hit by a wall of noise, fascinating to take in, but leaving viewers struggling to garner any information from it. Slowly as the film unfolds it is possible to relax into the rhythm, as the various threads that Hicks examines become more familiar and the sudden subject changes become less jarring. There is a wealth of information here, and it is a fascinating world we dive into. It is a world that is being pulled in multiple directions at once, swept along by the market forces of modernity, but steeped in crafts that are centuries old. Then there are the diva temperaments that come into play (with an unexpected catastrophe for the ASQ), and emotions really reach a crescendo.

Highly Strung is certainly spoiled for choice when it comes to interesting subject matter to examine, and that is also its downfall. Pulled in multiple directions there is no clear through-line to guide the narrative, no natural conclusion to events on screen. As such this often spirals out of control as the documentary disappears down another rabbit hole, exploring an interesting fact in detail. There is a lot here, it is a dense subject, richly examined, with multiple elements at play – but it is too much.

It's easy to recognise the skill and the emotion in the work, but without the form to give it structure it is impossible to tell where Highly Strung's heart truly lies. So, despite the evocative music, the beautiful cinematography, the emotional turmoil on screen, or the intriguing glimpses you get into the world of classical music - the whole thing just seems a little hollow.

A fascinating, but flawed documentary.

Originally published in X-Press Magazine