No amount of bad weather could keep me away from Blazing Baroque by the Australian Brandenburg Orchestra at the Melbourne Recital Centre on 30 July 2016. I mean nothing could keep me away from a performance with Artistic Director Paul Dyer running the show.
After their award winning performance last year for French Baroque (it was well deserved), I was prepared to be amazed and I was not disappointed.
The program ran as follows:
- Giovanni Battista Sammartini – Overture to the opera Memet, J-C 88
- Antonio Vivaldi – Concerto for violin in D, RV 208, Grosso mogul
- Georg Philipp Telemann – Grand Concerto in D, TWV deest
- Antonio Vivaldi – Concerto for several instruments RV 569 in F
- Georg Philipp Telemann – Concerto in E minor for flute & recorder, TWV 52:e1
- Johann Friedrich Fasch – Concerto for Orchestra in D
What is clear from this performance is Paul Dyer is a showman who manages to captivate the audience with the orchestra’s stellar performance. For me what stood out is the violinist Shaun Lee-Chen who demonstrated throughout the program a passion and intensity often lacking in such performances. I was amazed at the flawless techniques displayed and there really was a connection with the audience who went wild at the end of the solos. The atmosphere was more like a rock concert than the world of classical music.
This is Dyer’s genius. He has bridged the gap with the Australian Brandenburg Orchestra between having an orchestra that has brilliant technical skill to an orchestra that makes people want to jump out of their seats.
Something that I really noticed was the passion of each player during the performance, they made it look easy and they were having great fun. There are so many wonderful performers that it’s difficult to write about them all. I painstakingly await their return to Melbourne.
– Angela
Angela the lover of Baroque and all things life.
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