The Australian Haydn Ensemble continues its “pocket symphonies” quest, bringing its audiences stripped down arrangements of great Classical works, only this time they gave a double helping with septet versions of Mozart’s Symphony No. 35 Haffner and Beethoven’s Fourth.

Mozart, unlike Haydn, never made the trip to London but thanks to Venetian composer and performer Giambattista Cimador his symphonies became known there. The Italian was shocked that the musicians of the King’s Theatre refused to play them as they were considered “too difficult”.

So Cimador arranged six of the symphonies, including the Haffner, as septets for strings and flute and it was this version that AHE director Skye McIntosh chose to close the first half of this latest tour.

The Australian Haydn Ensemble: Beethoven’s Fourth. Photo © Oliver Miller

The scene was set, however, by Luigi Boccherini’s gorgeous String Quintet in A minor, Op. 25 No. 6, with Pippa MacMillan’s double bass taking the second cello part alongside cellist Daniel Yeadon.

There’s an elegance and operatic feel to this composer’s music, often with a Spanish flourish as he spent much of his career in Madrid, and Haydn’s strong influence is always apparent.

This piece, however, also has a Largo cantabile slow movement in which McIntosh and second violin Matthew Greco shared a lovely duet before the conversation was taken up between Rafael Font’s viola and Yeadon’s cello.

Although he was dubbed “Haydn’s wife”, Boccherini invokes the energy and insistence of Vivaldi in the exciting final movement.

From the opening declamatory bars of the Haffner the chamber version works well and McIntosh and the ensemble, with Melissa Farrow’s flute, were in excellent form.

With such small forces the details of what makes these works so wonderful is brought into focus.

You see more clearly how the elements work together and how the whole is made. It’s as if you can smell the glue and wood shavings.

The Australian Haydn Ensemble: Beethoven’s Fourth. Photo © Oliver Miller

The Andante stood up well with Farrow standing in for an entire woodwind section and the elegant main theme was fully intact.

If one did feel the lack of brass and drums it was in the third movement, but the fiery Sturm und Drang of the final movement – to be played as fast as possible, Mozart stipulated – was very effective with Yeadon and MacMillan providing some rapid and thunderous low-down grunt.

Sandwiched between the Eroica and the mighty Fifth, Beethoven’s sunny Fourth is somewhat dwarfed. But after its slow, meandering opening – Farrow’s long held notes were admirably handled – it kicks into life like a sprinter off the blocks and the seven players were up for the challenge in the arrangement by violinist and secretary of London’s Philharmonia Society William Watts.

The second movement, with its ticking rhythm, was particularly lovely when played as a quartet.

McIntosh kept the momentum going for the stormy finale, with its vehement rapid bowing and cross-rhythms, bringing the concert to a decisive and positive end. 

For more information on Australian Haydn Ensemble concerts in 2026, visit australianhaydn.com.au