Bavarian-Japanese violinist Midori Seiler is a fixture of the Historically Informed Performance scene in Europe, with long tenures as concertmaster for the Akademie für Alte Musik Berlin and Anima Eterna Brugge, and a formidable discography that spans solo Bach to Vivaldi’s The Four Seasons with Akademie für Alte Musik Berlin, Haydn concertos with Concerto Köln, and Rimsky-Korsakov’s Scheherazade with Jos van Immerseel and Anima Eterna. For the Australian Haydn Ensemble and Artistic Director Skye McIntosh to bring her out here for her Australian debut, leading the group’s final tour for 2019, was therefore something of a coup – and with a name reminiscent of a summer cocktail, it was a refreshing treat for Sydney’s early music connoisseurs.

Midori Seiler. Photo © Maike Helbig

An expanded Australian Haydn Ensemble – some 20 musicians – flourished under Seiler’s direction on the stage of the Sydney Conservatorium of Music’s Verbrugghen Hall, performing music by the two pillars of the Classical period, opening with an effervescent account of Mozart’s Symphony No 33, K.319 and closing with the ‘Sturm und Drang’ drama of Haydn’s Symphony No 80, Hob. 1:80.

Mozart wrote his K.319 Symphony in B Flat...