Playful romp into merry old England

After forays into the Italian and Spanish baroque, the Australian Brandenburg Orchestra and Circa have teamed up again.

Circa performers devised spectacular routines that melded seamlessly with the music.

After their successful collaborative forays into the Italian and Spanish baroque, the ­Australian Brandenburg ­Orchestra and Brisbane contemporary circus Circa have turned their attention to England. ABO director Paul Dyer, Circa’s Yaron Lifschitz and their creative teams have imagined four 17th and 18th-century English settings: the court, the bedroom, the chapel and the fairground.

Purcell and traditional folk songs feature prominently in Dyer’s musical pasticcio.

He also pays tribute to England’s appeal as a musical destination by featuring works by Corelli, whose compositions were immensely popular there, and also by Handel and Nicola Matteis, who both made ­England their home.

Throughout the four scenes, the orchestra’s tight-knit continuo section provided understated yet solid harmony and percussive grooves.

At first the strings sounded abrasive but their blend and cohesion improved notably in the final two scenes. Soprano soloist Jane Sheldon impressed with her clarity, light-toned beauty and timbral variety.

The Circa performers once again devised a series of spectacular routines which melded seamlessly with the music.

Acrobatic feats of strength and control were intertwined with rapid-fire tumbles, dives, throws and jumps. Noah Nielsen’s intricately executed diabolo session was a captivating ending to scene two.

The final fairground setting was the most imaginative of the four.

In a light-hearted opening, several audience members were invited on to the stage and seated on white blocks as the performers elegantly danced around them. In one sequence, Sheldon gently swayed back and forth in a swing while the acrobats tumbled and jumped around and beneath her.

Elsewhere, the troupe executed a series of lifts, delicate balancing acts and human towers but it was Gerramy Marsden’s dramatic cigar-box juggling, rola bola act and ­musical instrument chin-balancing finale that almost stole the show.

English Baroque with Circa Australian Brandenburg Orchestra. City Recital Hall, Sydney, May 10. Concert repeated Wednesday and Friday. Melbourne Recital Centre, May 18 and 19; QPAC, Brisbane, May 21.