There’s nothing like moving house for bringing on a little bit of reflection, of leisurely navel-gazing. Managing Director of the Australian Brandenburg Orchestra, Bruce Applebaum does not, however, have time for that. Because while he’s used to moving a 40-piece orchestra, complete with a menagerie of precious period instruments, around the country, this last week has been an altogether different challenge.

Melissa Farrow, Lucinda Moon, Brendan Joyce and Paul Dyer photographed for the 2008 season brochure. All photographs courtesy of the Australian Brandenburg Orchestra

A long overdue move from a beautiful but cramped building in the Sydney suburb of Edgecliff to more spacious offices in Mascot has been shoehorned in between a three-city tour (full orchestra and guest star Lixsania Fernandez, the charismatic Cuban gamba player), and the ten-day run of Noël! Noël!, (choir, orchestra, special guests, the full catastrophe). In the week between the finish of one and the start of the next, 30 years of music-making is crammed into boxes and trucks and carted down the road to their new office in Mascot.

“It’s been a bit mad,” says Applebaum, in what must be a contender for understatement of the...