Australia’s finest period instrument orchestra, the Australian Brandenburg Orchestra, has begun making a home in Melbourne.
General Manager Bruce Applebaum announced today that the Australian Brandenburg Orchestra will perform a Gala Concert, Handel’s Fire and Water, at The Arts Centre, Hamer Hall at 8pm Monday, September 22.
The Gala Concert, which will mark the first performance by the full Orchestra in Melbourne for five years, will be followed by the Orchestra’s first-ever Melbourne concert season in 2009 at the new Melbourne Recital Centre.
Established in 1990 in Sydney by Artistic Director Paul Dyer, the Australian Brandenburg Orchestra comprises some 40 musicians who are specialists in the performance of baroque and classical music. It is a truly national orchestra, with its musicians flying in from home bases around Australia to rehearse, perform and tour. The musicians play from original edition scores and on instruments of the period, giving the orchestra its distinctive sound.
“This is a momentous occasion for the Australian Brandenburg Orchestra,” said Bruce Applebaum. “The imminent completion of Elisabeth Murdoch Hall, with its marvellous acoustics and perfect size, means that we can now make this serious financial commitment for Melbourne to be our second home and finally kick off an annual Melbourne subscription season.”
“It has long been a dream of mine to be an integral part of Melbourne’s music-making, said Paul Dyer. “Over the past 18 years, we’ve visited many times but at most just once a year. Being able to perform multi-concert annual seasons in Melbourne means that the Australian Brandenburg Orchestra has really come of age, and it’s wonderful to be able to celebrate this at Hamer Hall.”
The Gala Concert’s Music for the Royal Fireworks and Water Music are among Handel’s “best and fairest” works, making them fitting choices for the start of Melbourne’s 2008 Grand Final Week and the introduction of a new permanent fixture on the Melbourne music scene.
The Orchestra will be led by Guest Director Alfredo Bernardini who has performed around the world as a member of major baroque ensembles and as orchestra director, and whose consummate skill and Italian exuberance will inspire the Orchestra in this grand tribute to Handel and his masterpieces.
Australian Brandenburg Orchestra
Handel’s Fire and Water
Venue: The Arts Centre, Hamer Hall
Date/Time: Monday September 22 @ 8pm.
Tickets: $42–$95
Bookings: Ticketmaster 1300 136 166 or www.ticketmaster.com.au
Latest Melbourne News
ABO makes Melbourne its second home
- Details
Most read Melbourne reviews
West Gate | Melbourne Theatre Company
At 11.50am on October 15 1970, 35 men fell to their death as their place of work gave way from under them.
Heathers The Musical
Capturing the essence of its predecessor, Heathers The Musical is an absurdly comic production that doesn’t just walk the line of polite society but plans to blow it all up with reckless abandon.The Glass Menagerie | Melbourne Theatre Company
This Glass Menagerie is top shelf, and while blessed with an extraordinary cast and the highest of production values, it will not meet with everyone’s measure of how this play should be staged.
Swan | Elf Lyons
Quirks of the source – and of the environment that sustains it – are cleanly exposed in a high-energy hour of physical comedy, delivered with moments of avian grace.
The Brut Truth: A Champagne Comedy Tasting | Prétentieux vin Branleur
It feels that the show hasn’t quite worked out what point it wants to make.
Suzie Miller’s award-winning one-woman play, Prima Facie returns to Melbourne for a limited season.
The script is based on a true story, although this dramatisation can feel somewhat contrived, with important assertions not interrogated, and credibility stretched as a result.