Pianist Hiromi’s performance with US string quartet PUBLIQuartet at the Adelaide Town Hall Tuesday night was riveting. As all five members of the quintet have either won a Grammy (Hiromi) or been nominated for Grammys (PUBLIQuartet), it’s not surprising that they produced musical fireworks.

The quintet (piano, two violins, viola and cello) began with ‘Jumpstart’ from Hiromi’s 2021 album, Silver Lining Suite. This was apt, and not only because Hiromi’s hands leapt off the keys of her Yamaha grand piano like she’d received electric shots. Her playing and playfulness also jumpstarted and transported the audience into a two-hour musical adventure.

Hiromi’s gentle, humorous personality and her tasteful fusion of different musical styles make her music both a great entry point for people new to jazz and classical, and a refreshing twist for existing fans. In addition, her animated facial expressions could hold their own against any guitar faces.

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The main part of the program was the four-part ‘Silver Lining Suite’ from Hiromi’s album of the same name, with the first movement, ‘Isolation’, being particularly uplifting. The suite demonstrated how Hiromi’s compositions struck the right balance between experimental and comfortingly familiar. Of course, jazz is a prominent feature of Hiromi’s work, but she didn’t overdo the dissonant sounds that non-jazz enthusiasts sometimes find off-putting. Having said that, the irregular – but presumably deliberate – tapping sound emanating from the cello felt disconnected from the music and was distracting.

Under pink lights, Hiromi’s sublime piano interpretation of Paul McCartney’s ‘Blackbird’ kept the integrity of the original song until towards the end, when her own music took flight. She knew intuitively how to get the audience on side before inviting us to listen to something different. (As she said, “That was ‘Blackbird’ … almost.”)

And the audience were definitely on Hiromi’s side. She made us part of her performance, partly by presenting us with musical puzzles and jokes. For example, when she played decisive chords that made the audience think she’d finished, she played another chord while pretending to pout. And the magnificent PUBLIQuartet were also having fun with their own jokes. In one solo, the first violinist produced a wolf whistle on the violin.

Hiromi’s musical puzzles involved providing clues about the song she was about to interpret, so that when she made it clear she was playing some of ‘My Favourite Things’ by Rodgers & Hammerstein, the audience sounded pleased that the puzzle was solved. At another point, she played some of Rimsky-Korsakov’s ‘Flight of the Bumblebee’. Apart from that, her musical and visual influences included classical chords reminiscent of Rachmaninoff, the stride piano of jazz and even rapid-fire rock ‘n’ roll chords in the style of Jerry Lee Lewis (standing up while playing said chords completed the Jerry Lee allusion). But Hiromi also had her own bag of tricks, such as sticking one hand inside the lid of her piano to tweak the strings, while playing the keys with her other hand and moving her body in an amusing way.

A generous performer, Hiromi looked just as joyful to let the other musos take the lead at times. This generosity was confirmed when she insisted – in a gentle way – that the Town Hall’s lighting person needed to illuminate the viola player and cello player.

Apart from the mellow ‘Blackbird’, the concert was high-energy throughout, but the quintet’s encore piece took this to the next level. The eastern European-sounding ‘Ribera del Duero’ was a perfect showcase for creative solos by all five musicians, with the quartet revealing their astonishing virtuosity with a manic intensity that perhaps only violins and cellos can reach. When the five virtuosos played simultaneously, the effect was an exciting wall of sound. Hiromi even got the audience clapping along with her at one point.

For people who consider that jazz, classical and experimental music are boring or inaccessible, Hiromi is the remedy.

Hiromi – The Piano Quintet (featuring PUBLIQuartet) performed at Adelaide Town Hall on October 28 as part of OzAsia Festival