Australian Brandenburgs give joyful voice to Handel’s Italian job

All roads led to Rome for Baroque composers, including young George Frederick Handel who was keen to learn about the latest developments in music.

The Australian Brandenburg Orchestra perform Corelli and Handel. Picture: Keith Saunders

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All roads led to Rome for early 18th century composers, including young George Frederick Handel who was keen to learn about the latest developments in orchestral and choral music.

One highlight of the 22-year-old’s Roman holiday of 1706-7 was a meeting with the great 44-year-old Italian composer Arcangelo Corelli, the other was writing the choral work Dixit Dominus for a couple of cardinals who offered patronage.

These two events are celebrated by Paul Dyer and the Australian Brandenburg Orchestra and Choir in their second series of 2021.

Corelli developed the concerto grosso – a multi-movement piece where a small group of soloists play “against” the full orchestra – to such a degree that his Op 6 set became the template for many other Baroque composers, including Bach, Albinoni and Handel himself.

Two of these works formed the first half of this concert, with a violin concerto by Giuseppe Antonio Brescianello, a rather obscure contemporary of Handel and Bach, as meat in the sandwich.

Concertmaster Shaun Lee-Chen featured prominently in all three works, soloing with his violinist colleagues Ben Dollman, Matt Bruce and Matthew Greco in the opener, Corelli’s bright and breezy Concerto Grosso Op 6 No.4.

NOVEL

The ABO have performed Brescianello’s works before, notably on their 2015 silver anniversary album where Lee-Chen played the E minor concerto, along with the composer’s excellent Chaconne, but for this concert he gave the C major concerto, which this listener thought was enjoyable but predictable. There were some slight intonation problems in the generally well executed cadenzas.

Paul Dyer conducts the Australian Brandenburgs performing Handel's Dixit Dominus. Picture: Keith Saunders

Dyer introduced a novel feature for the Corelli pieces, swelling the strings with the addition of Baroque trumpeters Leanne Sullivan and Richard Fomison playing violin parts, and Brett Page’s bass sackbut (early trombone) and bassoonist Jane Gower joined the cellos and bass section.

Corelli and his contemporaries sometimes augmented their ensembles in the same way, though this was the first time it had been done in Australia, and the trumpets in particular added a layer of grandeur.

STANDOUT

The choir and orchestra were on top form for the second half for a memorable reading of Dixit Dominus, one of Handel’s most popular and enjoyable choral works. The Brandies have performed it many times over the years. The chorus Judicabit in nationibus shows God at his most vengeful and the orchestral and choral setting of the lines “he will smash many skulls on earth” never fails to send shivers up the spine.

Each of the six soloists from within the choir was excellent and the duet by sopranos Chloe Lankshear and Amy Moore was a standout moment. Also worth noting was 20-year-old counter tenor Austin Haynes, who shone in his solo aria. Born in New Zealand, the former boy soprano has already built an impressive following on YouTube. Cellist Anthea Cottee got a well-deserved ovation for a busy night of solo obbligato work.

The concert is repeated at City Recital Hall at 7pm on Friday, February 26; Saturday, February 27; Tuesday, March 2, and Friday, March 5, with a 2pm performance on Saturday, February 27.

DETAILS

●CONCERT Australian Brandenburg Orchestra: Handel’s Rome

●WHERE City Recital Hall Angel Place

●WHEN Wednesday, February 24