Annual Noël! Noël! concerts aside, seeing an Australian Brandenburg Orchestra season all laid out once programmed “feels a bit like Christmas” to Principal Bass Robert Nairn – and, in the Brandies’ 2026 season, there’s something under the tree for him.

In October, Nairn will perform the world premiere of the recently unearthed Concerto for violone in E-flat major, penned by Austrian classical composer Ignaz Pleyel. Better known today as a publisher and piano-maker, at the turn of the 19th century, Pleyel – Haydn’s star student – was arguably the most popular composer in the world, Nairn tells Limelight.

The Australian Brandenburg Orchestra with double bassist Robert Nairn (centre). Photo supplied

“He wrote an enormous amount of music: 41 symphonies, 17 concerti, 70 string quartets and at least as many other chamber music works, several operas, masses, other vocal works and a huge collection of piano works. For me, his music is elegant, balanced and full of really glorious melodic writing.”

Written around 1779 in Pressburg [now Bratislava], the piece is believed to have...