Experience the joy of the Australian Romantic & Classical Orchestra’s 2020 season. Australia’s outstanding ‘HIP’ orchestra has announced its 2020 season in celebration of Beethoven’s 250th birthday – and there is laughter, gravitas, spectacle and the sweetest of virtuosic playing awaiting Sydney audiences!

With March, May and August programs – all in the beautiful acoustics of City Recital Hall, Angel Place – the Australian Romantic & Classical Orchestra’s historically informed performances (on period instruments) have something for every musical taste. And with their great value popular accompanying education series, Voyage of Musical Discovery, audiences can learn all about the inner workings of music from the past and from today!

The season kicks off with ‘The Impresario’ on Friday 6 March at 7pm with a program of Mozart, Beethoven and Eberl – the Viennese master’s long-forgotten friend and sometime rival.

“Sublime! Impeccable timing, superbly executed.” – Sydney Arts Guide

Rachael Beesley directs Beethoven’s breathtaking 7th Symphony and Eberl’s own exquisite Symphony in E-flat major, prefaced by Mozart’s Der Schauspieldirektor (The Impresario) a short and hilarious satire on the rivalry of singers vying for top billing… plus ça change!

The Sunday afternoon 10 May 3pm concert ‘The Creation’ is the perfect program with which to celebrate Mother’s Day and brings the orchestra together with the Sydney Chamber Choir and four exquisite vocal soloists to present Haydn’s spectacular oratorio of the Creator’s work with a cast of imaginary animals, Adam, Eve and three archangels! Conducted by regular guest, Berlin-based Jakob Lehmann, this is the performance that was always the dearest wish of the orchestra’s dear, much-loved late founder, Richard Gill AO. When it was first presented, audiences reported chills down their spines – and it was so popular that it was performed more than 40 times in the life of the composer alone!

“The rapport between the musicians and their joy in this music is obvious.” – Limelight

On Friday 7 August at 7pm the orchestra will perform ‘The Souvenir’ – Mozart’s cheeky Serenade Serenata Notturna and his showy E-flat major Horn Concerto (featuring London-based Anneke Scott on natural horn), Beethoven’s E-flat major Sextet for Winds and Tchaikovsky’s sensuous Souvenir de Florence.

The tandem Voyage of Musical Discovery concerts this year feature themes of Motivic Development (4 March, with guest artist Nick Russoniello, saxophone/loop); Voices & Instruments (28 April, with the Sydney Chamber Choir); and Texture & Timbre (5 August, with spectacular drumming ensemble Taikoz!) The Australian Romantic & Classical Orchestra’s Co-Artistic Directors, Rachael Beesley and Nicole van Bruggen present each Voyage with musicians of the orchestra in the first half, and these exceptional guest artists featured in the second half, together providing listeners with live examples and explanations of the compositional similarities between historical and Australian contemporary works.