There was excitement here last Sunday on a sunny Sydney winter afternoon. We were on the Pier at Dawes Point Walsh. Bay.The Australian Haydn Ensemble led by Skye McIntosh was to deliver an all Mozart program …String Quintet, Sonata, Piano Concerto and Symphony, with performances by Erin Helyard and other outstanding ensemble musicians, each a leader in their own field. Dr Daniel Yeadon for example started out reading Physics at Oxford ! now plays a 1781 cello, and has made many award winning recordings.
The venue ,at Pier 2/3 of the Finger Wharf is part of the Walsh Bay Arts Precinct. Old wharves, historic buildings dating back to the early 20th century, are now vast volumes of glass chrome and light. The enormous wooden structures are still intact and they echo Australia’s distant past from whence her great rural exports left our shores and when this was a bustling cargo port.Today within it ,there is a concert hall “The Neilson” , a masterful creation of soft timbers with a modulated acoustic interior. It was all an exciting prelude to a memorable concert.
First up was a Mozart String Quintet…conducted from the first violin by Skye McIntosh. She is the Haydn Ensemble’s founder and artistic and entrepreneurial director. The piece dates back to a teenage Mozart, and is full of his joyful creativity and joie de vivre, the quintet ably demonstrating its melodic lines and rhythms, dancing and intertwining with each other.
Erin Helyard featured in the next two works – a piano concerto and a sonata , both performances being executed with a clarity of purpose and direction. Erin is a dominant figure in the Sydney Music Scene with his talents extending well beyond that of a piano virtuoso. He is also the Artistic Director Founder of Pinchgut opera and the Orchestra of the Antipodes.
The final work, and highlight of the concert, was Mozart’s Linz Symphony. Mozart, having arrived in Linz and being asked to give a concert , found himself without anything to play. No problem. Within four days, and composing at breakneck speed, he produced this four movement Symphony. A slightly expanded ensemble, now a pocket sized orchestra, again led by Skye McIntosh, exhibited the work’s symphonic dimensions perfectly.
An exquisite ending to a delightful programme.
