‘I seek out original manuscripts in monasteries’: the curious life of Australian Brandenburg Orchestra’s Paul Dyer

Paul Dyer has spent 34 years at the helm of the Australian Brandenburg Orchestra, which plays Baroque music on period instruments. It involves a lot of musical detective work...

Musical detective work: Paul Dyer. Picture: Nico Keenan

You co-founded the Australian Brandenburg Orchestra in 1990 and have served as its artistic director and conductor for 34 years. Have you begun to think about what your legacy might be? I’ve just started to dream about the idea of succession. The music must continue to flow – I don’t want it to stop with me. I’m not just going to jump out of the orchestra any moment soon, but there is a need to set up a transition in a really beautiful way so that it can flow nicely. I’ve got a lot of young people around me. It’s a really healthy thing to do, to have buoyancy and youth in the room.

The Brandenburg performs music of the Baroque era using instruments also of the era. What is special about Baroque music? It’s got a drive and energy about it, but it also has an architecture of feeling. When its composers made music, they honestly did sit down and say, “I want to create happiness, sadness, anger, fear. I want to be suspenseful.” The great calling card with Baroque music is that it’s short bursts. So if someone was feeling like, “Oh my god, classical music, you know, it goes on and on”, then Baroque is your access point. It’s why 350 years later people like [UK-based composer and pianist] Max Richter look back in time and say, “I want to create a modern version of that.”

Dyer playing the harpsichord

It was a huge get for the Brandenburg to perform Richter’s recomposition of Vivaldi’s Four Seasons in 2015. How did you pull it off? He was coming out to perform in Australia so I emailed him and said, “I’d love to take you out to lunch”, and I added, “I promise I won’t ask for anything!” I’d done so many Four Seasons in my life, and he’d turned it upside down. I think he was quite touched that we had the first period instrument performance in the world of that [new] piece because it was written for modern instruments.

How much historical detective work is involved with your role? There are the main Baroque composers that everybody knows – Bach, Vivaldi and Handel – but I’ve always wanted to highlight composers of the era that were neglected. A lot of the work I do is seeking out the original manuscript of a composer, so that means I have to go to the sources in libraries and monasteries. I don’t want layers and layers of 300 years of other people’s notes. I just want to hear from the composer.

The Franco-American harpsichordist Justin Taylor joins the Brandenburg next month for the Night in Versailles concerts. What can audiences expect? It makes me laugh because truly he looks like Justin Bieber, he looks so young, but he is so accomplished and he’s married with two kids. After all these years, I’ve never had a solo harpsichord player perform, except myself, and I’ve chosen him. He’s the most virtuosic. He’s exciting, he’s brilliant and he’s breathtakingly skilful.

You’re an expert on the music of the Baroque era but what kind of popular music do you enjoy? I went to see Elton John’s final concert, and then Kylie, and after that I realised how much it doesn’t matter what kind of artist you are, that it’s always about emotions, endurance and excitement. When Kylie sat down with just a pianist, she was breathtaking. With Lady Gaga, I felt the same thing, although her piano was on fire.

Night in Versailles will be performed July 5-10 at Sydney’s City Recital Hall and July 11-14 at Melbourne Recital Centre.