Australian Romantic & Classical Orchestra – Simply put, a treat
…The artistic direction of the orchestra is shared by Rachael Beesley and Nicole van Bruggen and their dedication to detail and the authentic performance of these works is to be highly commended.
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Beginning with the four delicate woodwind chords in the overture, we were treated to a sense of expectation for the whole concert with excellent intonation and balance. The difficult rapid and delicate string passages following were held together with amazing clarity…
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The orchestra succeeded in bringing out the radical humour of this symphony with its many surprises such as the end of the first movement with a final mildly abrupt statement of the opening theme or the intrusive and surprising blasted out C# in the final movement (C# does not belong to the key of F major!!) or the unsubtle shift of key by the octaves theme simply going up a semitone. This was a very convincing performance of a work that in my opinion is much underrated.
Peter Hagen, classikON (8 August 2023)
Photo: Ken Nakashini