Chamber music has a lot to compete with on a Friday night in Sydney, but HIP band the Australian Romantic and Classical Orchestra – distilled to their essence in the form of the ARCO Chamber Soloists – rewarded those who came out to City Recital Hall for Classical Melodies with a concert well worth the trip.

The ARCO Chamber Soloists. Photo © Nick Gilbert

Mozart’s most famous piece of occasional music, Serenade No. 13 K525 or Eine Kleine Nachtmusik, has long suffered for its popularity, but the ARCO musicians with their period instruments gave a performance that shed new light on a work whose concert tradition has been eclipsed by its use as muzak and fodder (in simplified arrangements) for primary school bands. Guest violinist Jakob Lehmann (whose regular gig is concertmaster with Anima Eterna Brugge) struck a beautiful balance with ARCO’s own concertmaster Rachael Beesley, their combined sound a thing of shining beauty at the top of the ensemble with Deirdre Dowling on viola, and cellist Natasha Kraemer and bass Kirsty McCahon setting the lower end ablaze. The phrases of the first movement breathed organically, exuding a natural joie...