ARCO's Album Release: 'Illuminate'

Following the scintillating CD and digital format release of Heavenly Mozart recorded in the studio, Australian Romantic & Classical Orchestra return to immortalise an important concert recorded live.
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Australian Romantic & Classical Orchestra’s signature clarity and exciting momentum is a joy to listen to as they catapult across the divide from the late nineteenth century Romanticism and into early modernism. The vocalist presents the complex late Romantic texts by Rimbaud with wide range of nuance in fluid modern accent above the same pointed, precise gestures on the period string accompaniment.

Paul Nolan, Sydney Arts Guide
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'Illuminate' Review

The Australian Romantic & Classical Orchestra continues to do what it does best, which just happens to be the title of its latest recorded release. Illuminate sheds new light on three works, two of them for Romantic string orchestra and the third a mid-20th-century setting of French surrealist poetry. 

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The graceful portamenti are a particular pleasure, since, like all ARCO performances, attention has been paid to period practice…The Tchaikovsky – played by full string orchestra rather than in the more commonly heard version for sextet – has an attractive butter-smooth lilt…(and in the Britten, soprano Jacqueline Porter sings} in radiant counterpoint with ARCO’s gossamer strings.

Clive Paget, Limelight
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Could this be how it sounded in Mozart's time?

Neal Peres Da Costa is one of Australia’s leading classical keyboard players. You will find him in our concert halls sitting at a harpsichord or organ or historical piano — a fortepiano from Mozart’s day or a later nineteenth- or early-twentieth-century model.
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“HIP is not about recovering the past, which can’t be done,” Peres Da Costa explains, “but about expanding musical choices and keeping classical music alive, spontaneous and fresh. I absolutely love that.”
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Peres Da Costa’s recent recording of Mozart’s A major piano concerto, K. 488, with the Australian Romantic & Classical Orchestra puts his research into practice. In addition to flexibility of tempo and much ornamentation, the pianist improvises a connecting interlude between the first and second movements carrying the music from the A major or the first to the F sharp minor of the second.

Andrew Ford, Inside Story
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YMS 2024 NSW State Academy

Hear ARCO co-artistic director Nicole van Bruggen chat with 2MBS Fine Music Breakfast presenter Stephen Gard about this week’s Academy, what participants are learning about HIP, and the dynamic concert at 3:30pm on Saturday 4 October in Verbrugghen Hall, Sydney Conservatorium.

Stephen Gard, 2MBS Fine Music
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The Sunrise - Australian Romantic & Classical Orchestra

The Australian Romantic & Classical Orchestra (ARCO) has launched into its second decade of presenting historically informed performances (HIP) with The Sunrise, a Queensland tour beginning at the fabulous Old Museum in Brisbane ahead of concerts in Caloundra, Noosa, Maryborough and Bundaberg.

Light and bubbly, it had the sunbeam firmly fixed on van Bruggen’s (historical) clarinet…The caresses between the strings became so tender and light that they could have been playing with feathers….

All in all, the dawn of The Sunrise concert tour was an enjoyable evening of sparkling entertainment from the best HIPsters under the Southern Cross.

Gemma Regan, Limelight.
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'The Sunrise': Interview with ABC's Kaitlyn Sawrey

As ARCO launched their tour ‘The Sunrise’ in August 2024 from Brisbane to Bundaberg, clarinettist Nicole van Bruggen sat down to chat with Kaitlyn Sawrey at ABC Sunshine Coast for their Drive afternoon show. Nicole talked about Mozart’s basset clarinet, her own rare replica of that instrument, and how it features in ARCO’s brand-new commissioned work ‘Wavelength’ by Brisbane composer Nicole Murphy, premiering on the tour in Brisbane, Caloundra, Noosa, Maryborough and Bundaberg.

Kaitlyn Sawrey, ABC Sunshine Coast
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New Album 'Illuminate'

The Australian Romantic & Classical Orchestra (ARCO) has a new release ‘Illuminate’ featuring music by Bruch, Britten and Tchaikovsky. This Historically Informed Performance expands the Australian Romantic & Classical Orchestra’s repertoire into the late 19th and early 20th centuries.

Performed by the musicians of the Australian Romantic & Classical Orchestra conducted by Rachael Beesley, with soprano Jacqueline Porter, and recorded live at Sydney’s City Recital Hall, the album has music by three iconic Romantic and early Modernist composers, seen in a sparkling new light.

Shamistha De Soysa, Sounds Like Sydney.
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'The Sunrise' brings ARCO's luminous chamber music to Bundaberg

A clarinet melody, rising like the sun from shimmering strings. Five of Australia’s most brilliant musicians. Works beloved and new from an age of discovery, emotion and light.

The Australian Romantic & Classical Orchestra is touring Queensland this winter with a concert of intimate, luminous chamber music.

Angela Norval, Bundaberg Today
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Classical music comes to Maryborough

Fraser Coast music lovers will have the opportunity to meet and watch some of Australia’s best classical musicians perform in Maryborough next month.

Mayor George Seymour said the Australian Romantic & Classical Orchestra’s ‘The Sunrise’ concert would be held at St. Stephen’s Uniting Church in Maryborough on Tuesday 1 September from 6pm to 7:15pm.

Maryborough Sun.

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A triumphant, joyful concert

From the first punchy Beethoven chords to the joyful finale of Schubert’s Symphony No.9, ‘The Great’, the final concert of the Young Mannheim Symphonists 2024 National Academy on Saturday 13 July proved a triumph for both the young musicians and the ensemble guiding them – the Australian Romantic & Classical Orchestra (ARCO).

Rosemary Ponnekanti, Burwood Bulletin
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A 'Sunrise' With a Twist

Haydn’s ‘Sunrise’ quartet has a special place in clarinettist Nicole van Bruggen’s heart.

In Vincenzo Gambaro’s arrangement for clarinet and three strings, it was one of the works that marked the very first professional recording that she made with fellow Australian musician Rachael Beesley, when they performed in the Kwartet André after graduation from the Royal Conservatorium in The Hague.

Now, 29 years after they first started performing together, the two – now co-Artistic Directors of the Australian Romantic & Classical Orchestra (ARCO) – are about to perform ‘Sunrise’ again, this time on a tour of South East Queensland venues from 29 August – 5 September.

Maddy Briggs, Limelight
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A Triumphant, Joyful YMS 2024 National Academy

From the first punchy Beethoven chords to the joyful finale of Schubert’s Symphony No.9, ‘The Great’, the final concert of the Young Mannheim Symphonists 2024 National Academy on Saturday 13 July, proved a triumph for both the young musicians and the ensemble guiding them: the Australian Romantic & Classical Orchestra (ARCO).

“I’ve had the time of my life this week,” said one participant. “I feel very, very lucky I got to be here. Such a wonderful and valuable experience!”

Guest reviewer, ClassikON
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Young Mannheim Symphonists 2024 National Academy Director Interview

Rachael Beesley, conductor and co-director of the Young Mannheim Symphonists 2024 National Academy, spoke with 3MBS-FM host Nick Tolhurst about this unique music education program offered by the Australian Romantic & Classical Orchestra. This year the National Academy is in Melbourne for the first time, running 8-13 July with a final concert at 2pm Saturday 13 July.

Hear Rachael talk about how this YMS iNational Academy s the biggest ever, with 52 young musicians from around the country, and how it inspires both them and their audiences.

Nick Tolhurst, 3MBS-FM radio

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Listen to the program.

Finding radical newness in tradition with Neal Peres Da Costa's harpsichord

Neal Peres Da Costa’s most recent recordings include a Mozart piano concerto and a Robert Schumann song cycle, each using a model of piano its composer would have recognised. But as he explains, there’s much more to this music than getting the instrument right – there’s also the matter of historical style. Mozart would have expected his soloists to embellish their music and Schumann’s singers would have been more melodramatic than their modern counterparts. Can modern ears adjust to this? 

Andrew Ford, The Music Show, ABC Radio National
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Review: Heavenly Mozart

Heavenly Mozart is delightful, challenging, thoughtful and engaging. If listeners feel they know these two ‘war horses’ backwards, ARCO’s interpretation sheds new light. Equally, if Mozart is not your cup of tea, this is as good an album as any to make his acquaintance.”

Philip Pogson, Loudmouth
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CD Review: Heavenly Mozart

[Heavenly Mozart] is a wonderful rendition to introduce students to historically informed performance….

The beauty of the melodic lines and the clarity of the orchestral and piano parts are obvious, and the recording is definitely worth studying for the interpretive differences from other performances on modern instruments.

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This is a very poignant and well-articulated performance. The overall effect of the ensemble is very fine, and the recording is of a high level…a very worthy addition to any teacher or student’s library and comes with the highest recommendation.

John McKinnon, The Studio magazine, Music Teachers’ Association of NSW
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CD Reviews: Heavenly Mozart

Mozart is one of the world’s favourite classical composers. His Piano Concerto No.23 K.488 and ’Jupiter’ Symphony No.41 K.551 are two of his most popular compositions….So why listen to this album? It could be that these works have lost…their freshness and capacity to surprise.

This performance sees Neal Peres Da Costa playing fortepiano rather than the more usual piano. It is influenced by interpretations…by 19th-century pianists…and notable for the beauty and originality of its orchestration….The symphony also benefits from its historically informed performance, with conductor Rachael Beesley suggesting theatrical or operatic influences.

Paul Cooke, 2MBSFM

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Young Mannheim Symphonists in search of musical history

By using historical instruments (or replicas) and imitating historical playing styles as closely as possible, contemporary musicians can help audiences appreciate musical masterpieces as they were intended to be played and heard.

That’s the premise behind the Australian Romantic & Classical Orchestra and its Young Mannheim Symphonists education program, which provides an opportunity for young classical musicians to learn historically informed performance and to develop a deeper appreciation for their craft.

Anna Cheung, Burwood Bulletin

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Review: Heavenly Mozart

This is music as pleasant as it is learned. Turns are executed on the strings with finesse and dynamic contrasts abound. As with Mozart so we see with the Australian Romantic & Classical Orchestra, that attention to technique and form is but a starting point, albeit an important one, for the exploration of the sublime.

Aryan Mohseni, State of the Art

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Heavenly Mozart

If “heavenly” is also meant to confirm cosy notions about how Mozart is performed, listeners will be certainly surprised by the thought-provoking account of the concerto featuring Sydney pianist and academic Neal Peres Da Costa, who brings his wealth of knowledge about early performance styles to the task.

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Presented as a study in contrasts, the symphony opens with bristling Sturm und Drang elements well realised by the orchestra that give way to poised dance-like traits in the second and third movements before the players unleash a vigorous attack on the fugal finale. This triumphant conclusion with its incisive rhythmic bite may well signal that Mozart is in heaven and all will be well with the world below.

Tony Way, Limelight

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