The Australian Haydn Ensemble continues its “pocket symphonies” quest, bringing its audiences stripped down arrangements of great Classical works, only this time it gives 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 is this version that AHE director Skye McIntosh has chosen to close the first half of this latest tour.

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

The scene is 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 share a lovely duet before the conversation is 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, are 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 stands up well with Farrow standing in for an entire woodwind section and the elegant main theme is fully intact.

If one does feel the lack of brass and drums it is in the third movement, but the fiery Sturm und Drang of the final movement – to be played as fast as possible, Mozart stipulated – is 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 are admirably handled – it kicks into life like a sprinter off the blocks and the seven players are up for the challenge in this arrangement by violinist and secretary of London’s Philharmonia Society William Watts.

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

McIntosh keeps 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