It’s a pleasure to hear the elite musicians of the Orchestra of the Antipodes in a performance of their own, playing music contemporaneous to the operas they have presented with Pinchgut Opera over nearly two and a half decades.

The orchestra is an essential part of the historically informed productions that have become the company’s hallmark. Artistic Director Erin Helyard has curated a program of music by J S Bach, Georg Philipp Telemann and Johann Friedrich Fasch – composers whose lives are inextricably linked and intersect on several planes, yet retain a distinct and contrasting voice.

While Bach is synonymous with the Baroque, Telemann developed the Classically influenced galant style which was taken up by Fasch, who, unpublished during his lifetime, modelled his music in the idiom of his ‘most beloved’ friend Telemann.

Erin Helyard leads The Orchestra of the Antipodes: Bach & Telemann. Photo © Anna Kucera

From the Ruckers double harpsichord, Helyard directs the ensemble of seven specialists, playing one to a part, led by violinist Matthew Greco. Comprising violinists Annie Gard and Rafael Font who plays the rare tenor viola, violist...