An ode to Handel featuring an ode by Handel, that St. Cecilia would be proud of.

City Recital Hall, Angel Place
Feburary 25, 2015

Australia is enjoying a glut of early music treasures this year. Les Arts Florissants with Harry Christophers and The Sixteen have given performances on both the east and west coasts; Canada’s Tafelmusik Baroque Orchestra are currently touring the country with Musica Viva; and Brisbane Baroque is imminently about to launch its inaugural year in its new Queensland home with countertenor Max Emanuel Cenčić headlining. Early music lovers delighting in the quantity of world-class imports reaching our shores this year should not however discount our home-grown advocates of period instrument playing, the Australian Brandenburg Orchestra, who gave a thoroughly enjoyable season opener at Sydney’s City Recital Hall, Angel Place, that was only a little rough around the edges.

Kicking off 2015 the Brandenburgs offered an ode to Handel, centered around an ode by Handel, specifically his accomplished and surprisingly inventive setting of Dryden’s Ode for St Cecilia’s Day. The familiar forces of the orchestra, who for this first outing of the year were sporting some stylish new threads courtesy of their newly acquired fashion partners M.J. Bale...