Across four thoughtfully curated concerts in Canberra and Sydney, Salut! Baroque – led by artistic directors Sally Melhuish and Tim Blomfield – will trace the ways in which composers of the 17th and 18th centuries negotiated the competing demands of inspiration and authority.

These were artists who pushed musical form into bold new territory, yet they often had to temper their creativity to satisfy monarchs, courts and church hierarchies. Their music still carries the drama of that tension: light and shade, elegance and fury, reverence and rebellion.

Salut! Baroque. Photo supplied

Concert 1: Concord of Sweet Sounds

Taking its cue from Shakespeare – who wrote that those unmoved by music were “fit for treasons, stratagems and spoils” – Concord of Sweet Sounds unfolds as a survey of the baroque’s emotional spectrum, illuminating how composers harnessed melody to amplify theatricality, express devotion or voice longing.

Presented at Wesley Church, Forrest (30 January) and in the Barnet Long Room of Customs House at Sydney’s Circular Quay (1 February) the program explores music’s power to charm, unsettle and uplift – with courtly dances to operatic laments echoing the Bard’s wise words.

Concert 2: Invitation to the Dance

If the Baroque had a political epicentre, it was surely the glittering court of Louis XIV. In Invitation to the Dance, audiences enter the world of Versailles, where dance was a tool of diplomacy and every gesture reinforced the King’s absolute authority. Molière declared that “music and dance are all you need”; Louis took that maxim literally, using spectacle to cement power.

Jean-Baptiste Lully – composer, dancer and master strategist – became the monarch’s cultural architect, shaping the era’s opulent soundworld while guarding his own influence with ruthless precision.

This concert showcases the splendour, discipline and theatrical energy that defined French Baroque style, revealing how art and politics became inseparable under the Sun King.

Experience it at Wesley Church, Forrest on 24 April and at Verbrugghen Hall, Sydney Conservatorium of Music on 26 April.

Salut! Baroque. Photo supplied

Concert 3: Bohemian Rhapsody

Eighteenth-century Bohemia may not have matched the wealth of its neighbours, but its musical culture was so vibrant that historian Charles Burney declared the Bohemians “the most musical race in all Europe”. In Bohemian Rhapsody, Salut! Baroque brings to life a region where education, patronage and civic pride produced generations of exceptionally skilled composers and performers.

This concert – presented at Wesley Church, Forrest (12 June) and Verbrugghen Hall, Sydney Conservatorium of Music (14 June) – captures that spirit of exuberance and invention, revealing a tradition that profoundly shaped the direction of European music.

Concert 4: Charms in Musick

The season closes with Charms in Musick, a celebration of the voice. Tracing opera’s origins to late 16th-century Florence, where poets, philosophers and composers sought to reimagine ancient Greek drama, this concert honours the Baroque’s greatest vocal achievements. From early monody to mature operatic brilliance, the program showcases the expressive power that led composer Johann Ernst Galliard to assert the “pre-eminence” of vocal music above all others.

Presented at Wesley Church, Forrest on 13 November and at Verbrugghen Hall, Sydney Conservatorium of Music on 15 November.

For more information about Salut! Baroque and ticketing, visit baroque.com.au