Van Diemen's Band To Tour Italian Baroque Musical Masterworks After Two Years Of Cancellations

It's third time lucky for Tasmania's 'super group' Van Diemen's Band from 20 October when it begins a State-wide tour of a program devoted exclusively to the Italian Baroque master composer Antonio Vivaldi (of Four Seasons fame) called The Harmonic Inspiration.

Three years in the planning and requiring an eleven-member ensemble to play some of the most dazzling instrumental music of the eighteenth century, this ambitious project has been cancelled twice because of the State's restrictions imposed in response to the Covid-19 pandemic - on the second occasion at less than 24 hours' notice.

"Pulling the plug in June of last year was a huge disappointment, but unavoidable because State entry requirements were such a day-by-day proposition," says VDB's Artistic Director Julia Fredersdorff. "It wasn't just a matter of having all the right players available; we were also accessing rare instruments that at the time weren't available to us in Tasmania, such as the long-necked theorbo and a quality harpsichord. Rescheduling wasn't something we could do in the short term. It's taken us this long to put everything back together."

Nearly a year-and-a-half later, the right constellation of artists is once again available, and VDB has acquired its very own harpsichord, commissioned from the Dutch builder Titus Crijnen, and arriving in Hobart from his workshop in northern Spain only in June - all thanks to the generosity of the Band's patrons. "That's the upside to all this," says Fredersdorff. "We can deliver a concert of even higher sonic quality than would have been the case before the pandemic. And this year Van Diemen's Band has had major tours throughout mainland Australia and New Zealand, so we're very match-fit for these shows."

The concerts take us to eighteenth-century Venice and its most famous composer, whose music evokes the romance and ambience of the city of his birth more vividly than any painting or story, especially the concertos in his 1711 publication L'estro armonico ('The Harmonic Inspiration' in English) that make up the bulk of the program.

"With Vivaldi, you really feel as if you're in Venice," says Fredersdorff, "right there in that gondola, sunlight flickering off the surface of a canal. No singing gondolier though - instead, you have the sound of violins and plenty of other instruments as well. A couple of the concertos in L'estro armonico are written for not just one or two, but four violin soloists in addition to the rest of the band. It's hard to believe this music was composed for young women at a state-funded orphanage where Vivaldi was the music teacher. They must have been amazing."

Performance dates:

nipaluna/Hobart, Town Hall, Thursday 20 October, 6pm

Zeehan, Gaiety Theatre, Friday 21 October, 6pm

munatrik/Stanley, Town Hall, Saturday 22 October, 6pm

Latrobe, Memorial Hall, Sunday 23 October, 3pm

Scottsdale, Mechanics' Institute Hall, Tuesday 25 October, 6pm

St Helens, Portland Memorial Hall, Wednesday 26 October, 6pm

makala/Ross, Town Hall, Thursday 27 October, 6pm

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