Australian Brandenburg Orchestra Announces 2021 Season

The Australian Brandenburg Orchestra has announced its lineup for the 2021 season. Learn more at https://www.brandenburg.com.au/concerts/.

Check out the full lineup below!

February / March 2021 - Handel's Rome

La Città Eterna had been a sparkling metropolis for more than two thousand years when a brilliant young musician from Halle arrived. Drawn by its drama, Rome would be imprinted forever on the musical mind of George Frideric Handel.

Handel absorbed Baroque Rome's dynamism and met minds with its most glamorous musicians. One of these characters, the great violinist Arcangelo Corelli, composed Twelve Concerti Grossi which are today regarded as the earliest and finest examples of the form. Two concertos from the set - both in the triumphant key of D major - will be performed in luminous arrangements for string orchestra, Baroque trumpets and sackbutts.

While Handel was in Rome, opera had been banned by Papal decree. Turning his attention to music for the church, Handel composed one of his most eternal works. The great composer's virtuosic setting of Psalm 110, Dixit Dominus, unites an expanded Australian Brandenburg Orchestra with the full Brandenburg Choir in a dazzling start to the season.

April / May 2021 - Higher Angels

The sublime soprano. The emotional countertenor. Closely connected but distinctly different, the high male and female voices are the sparkling stars of Baroque. Individually alluring, collectively dynamic, two leading Australian singers will share the stage in a shimmering exposition of Baroque arias and duets.

Sara Macliver and Russell Harcourt will masterfully explore the exquisite possibilities of this breathtaking vocal combination.

Sara's deep association with the Brandenburg began in 1996 when she performed with Paul Dyer for Diana, Princess of Wales. Sara seized audiences' hearts in the inaugural 2000 Noël! Noël! concert and has since recorded 35 albums with ABC Classic and become one of Australia's leading exponents of Baroque vocal performance.

Renowned for his dexterous delivery in the Bel Canto style, longtime Brandenburg friend Russell Harcourt has performed in many of the world's great opera houses. The UK Guardian's Stephen Pritchard describes Russell as "an impressive Handelian with a thrilling top register".

July 2021 - Bach's Universe

A performance of JS Bach's music is an individual journey into an inner universe of mystery and magnificence. Constellations of chords rush to become vast galaxies of sound surging with Bach's eternal creative energy. Each work is an infinite cosmic expanse to explore.

In this concert, single musicians will arrive one by one onto a darkened stage beneath a brilliant column of light to offer an intimate vision of Bach's celestial instrumental works. The stage will gradually become illuminated with musicians joining in Paul Dyer's expansive all-Bach pasticcio.

In his Australian debut, radiant German Baroque violinist Jonas Zschenderlein will lead the orchestra in an incandescent performance of Bach's Violin Concerto in E major. This all-Bach concert culminates with Jonas guest-directing the genius composer's enveloping Orchestral Suite No. 3 in D major in a period instrument performance which must not be missed.

September 2021 - Poet of the Violin

Expressive Swiss-Iranian Baroque violinist Leila Schayegh performs on an instrument made in Cremona in 1675 by legendary luthier and founder of Casa Guarneri, Andrea Guarneri.

In a simple twist of fate, the exceptionally promising then seven-year-old violin student saw the course of her musical life forever changed when she was offered the chance to become the custodian of an extremely rare instrument. Four centuries older than Leila herself, Santa Teresia has undergone several detailed restorations in Paris and has now been returned to its original Baroque configuration.

Leila's performances are pure poetry and ring with the freedom of a master musician unrestrained by technical limitations. This dynamic musician's arrival on Australian shores for the first time will be an unmissable season highlight for every music lover.

October / November 2021 - Italian Baroque with Circa

Four bold cities - Florence, Naples, Venice and Rome. Each with its own proud people. Each with its own proud past. Each with a secret ambition. Plotting princes. Scheming city states. Bustling piazzas. Gushing fountains. Hold your breath and enter Baroque Italy.

The Australian Brandenburg Orchestra, in its fourth collaboration with Circa Contemporary Circus, will take audiences on a rollicking ride through Italy's multi-layered past. From the crumbling columns of the Roman Forum to Dante's flourishing Florence, dynamic dream-worlds will emerge in daring new choreography combining musicians and acrobats like never before.

Propelled by the vivacious Brandenburg string orchestra performing a kaleidoscopic Paul Dyer pasticcio, Italian Baroque with Circa will dance to its own unique tune. It will be sexy, it will be delicious and it will be passionately Baroque.

December 2021 - NOËL! NOËL!

On Christmas Eve in 1818, in the Austrian town of Oberndorf, one of the most celebrated Christmas carols of all-time was composed. In the church of St Nicholas, preparation for the Midnight Mass had been thrown into chaos with the discovery that the church organ had broken. Faced with the possibility of a silent night, the parish priest and the organist rapidly wrote a work for the remaining instruments - guitar and voice.

The work they performed was Stille Nacht, now better known as Silent Night, which has since been translated into over three hundred languages around the world.

Along with a serene performance of Stille Nacht by the Brandenburg Choir, you may hear a rare medieval hymn, a single sublime soprano or the warm sound of Baroque trumpets and sackbutts heralding a bright and very Brandenburg beginning to Christmas.

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