Australian Brandenburg Orchestra

City Recital Hall

Tuesday 17 June 2025

Review by Paul Neeson (Arts Wednesday)

In “Baroque Unleashed”, the Australian Brandenburg Orchestra rises to a whole new level in a concert of standard Italian Baroque music from the great composers of the era. Without a guest international star or any colourful staging or lighting, it was their excellent musicianship and their enthusiasm and passion for Baroque music that thrilled the audience on a crisp winter night at the City Recital Hall, Angel Place.

The program opened with Corelli’s Concerto Grosso. Corelli was the first composer to use the term Concerto Grosso to describe a musical form that was a stepping stone from a Renaissance Suite of predominantly dance movements that developed over time into what we now know as the Concerto in three movements. And the work began (after an Adagio introduction) at a cracking pace. This movement was marked Allegro which had me wondering how much faster was the subsequent Vivace movement going to be. We soon realised we were in for a night of virtuosic brilliance.

Next was Albinoni’s Concerto for Oboe with soloist Adam Masters, indeed a master of his instrument. Baroque concerti are mostly in the form of fast-slow-fast movements that are either in major-minor-major keys or minor-major-minor. This was a period when musical forms were starting to solidify into something more rigid and predictable, possibly driven by the fact that most composers were either court or church employees and as the saying goes, “he who pays the piper calls the tune.”

Concertmaster Shaun Lee Chen gave a breathtaking performance of Pergolesi’s Concerto for Violin, demonstrating why he has been in  the role since 2016. He took control of the orchestra calling the shots with his audible intake of breath to indicate the timing. I’m not sure if this came as a shock to Artistic Director, Paul Dyer, or with his blessing. Either way Chen’s skill and individual interpretation was very much on show, but much more was to come from Shaun later in the night.

After interval, the harpsichord had been turned around so we got to see the absolute joy on Dyer’s  face as he performed and conducted from the keyboard, rather than our more usual view of his back. After a work by Locatelli we ventured into the world of Vivaldi for the remainder on the program. It soon became apparent that Vivaldi was a remarkable talent of his time.

The Alla Rustica Concerto for Strings took us out of the court or the bishop’s palace and into the country dances of the villages with joyful and often boisterous dance rhythms that one can only imagine would have been anathema at the courts, but apparently not as the works survived the ravages and vagaries of time over the centuries.

A sudden flash of colour lit the stage as Principal Bass, Robert Nairn reappeared in a colourful blue, red and white patterned shirt that might have been more appropriate in a jazz club than a concert hall. But it was the music that was the focus as he performed Vivaldi’s Concerto for Violene, a comparatively sombre work with all three movements atypically in minor keys. Being a period instrument, it had trouble cutting through the orchestra on occasions, but his dexterity was evident throughout the work.

And what a piece to end the night, another Violin Concerto by Vivaldi, the Grosso Mogul. Chen was at his brilliant best, stretching the phrases, bending the pitch and basically breaking all the rules with consummate idiosyncratic verve. The cadenzas were a masterclass in what the Baroque could be when reimagined and backed up with outstanding virtuosity. He was able to produce two or three contrapuntal melodies simultaneously within a relentless barrage of semi-quavers as his fingering blurred into a haze of frenetic movement. And the crowd went wild.

Overall the balance between concertino (soloist) sections and the ripieno (tutti) sections was flawless. Dyer controlled the dynamics perfectly with melodies being answered supportively at each and every phrase of the music, conducting at times it appeared wth his nose or his forehead as both hands were kept busy on the keys of his prized harpsichord. Period instruments are infamous for the difficulties in maintaining pitch, and Dyer meticulously retuned the orchestra in the middle of each half. The tuning only ever strayed momentarily but curiously only while Chen was not on stage. 

This was a mature performance from the Brandies and their star soloists, replete with the musicianship and skill that makes them a world-class period instrument ensemble.