For Richter’s recomposed Vivaldi, ABO boldly go where no baroque orchestra has gone before.

City Recital Hall, Angel Place
May 6, 2015

The Australian Brandenburg Orchestra is an ensemble that’s usually committed to preserving the musical traditions of the past, but for this opening performance of its second programme of the 2015 season, Vivaldi Unwired, the ABO boldly went where no baroque orchestra had gone before for the world premiere performance of Max Richter’s Recomposed – Vivaldi: The Four Seasons on period instruments.

Starting the concert in more familiar territory however, the ABO gave a dazzling account of J.S. Bach’s glorious helter-skelter of chromatic invention, Brandenburg Concerto No. 3 in G Major. Led by Paul Dyer at the harpsichord, this was bright, energised and unashamedly joyous music-making at its most uplifting. The visibility of Bach’s knotty, multi-layered counterpoint, passing from one musician to the next as it snaked its way back and forth across the ensemble afforded each member of the consort an opportunity to show off, but this was more than merely peacocking. The ABO’s playful interaction ensured Bach’s dense, frenetic textures were given a delicate contour so that this complex and harmonically intense music maintained absolute clarity. The...