Paul Dyer laid on a feast of Baroque hits to launch the Australian Brandenburg Orchestra’s new season a few weeks back, and for its second tour he continues in the same vein, only this time the Artistic Director has added the excellent 18-voice choir as an enticing ingredient.

The first half was all JS Bach, featuring excerpts from three of his most popular cantatas. The evening then built to two works that encapsulate the “choral splendour” of the concert’s tagline, two of GF Handel’s Coronation Anthems, Zadok the Priest and The King shall rejoice.

The instrumental element was equally splendid with a nicely nuanced performance of Bach’s Double Violin Concerto featuring two well-matched and complementary soloists in Concertmaster Shaun-Lee Chen and Principal Second Baroque Violin Ben Dollman.

Shaun-Lee Chen and Ben Dollman – Australian Brandenburg Orchestra: Choral Splendour. Photo © Keith Saunders

Another highlight was Heidi Jones’s handling of the organ solo in the Sinfonia from the cantata Wir danken dir, Gott, wir danken dir, which is probably better known as the Prelude to the Violin Partita No. 3 in E major. This was punctuated by stabbing chords from Baroque trumpets, led by Richard Fomison, and Brian Nixon’s timpani.

The whole orchestra was in fine form for GP Telemann’s Ouverture from Overture in D major, TWV 55:D18. Dyer’s sweeping gestures and extravagant conducting style were perfect for the grand opening with its regal trumpets, oboes, flutes and bassoons, before Lee-Chen led the car-chase section which followed.

The thrill of the hunt was also captured by the twin natural horns of Michael Dixon and Dorée Dixon – they’re not related – in the vivacious opening movement of Johann David Heinichen’s Concerto in F major, a remarkable work which features a middle movement with Melissa Farrow and Mikaela Oberg’s two flutes going at it and some technical fireworks for violin.

Australian Brandenburg Orchestra: Choral Splendour. Photo © Keith Saunders

The horns return for the final movement where the fanfare passages in harmony call for some prodigious high ornamentation, all expertly done by both players.

But the true splendour of this concert was when choir and orchestra combine. The evening started literally with a wake-up call in Bach’s Wachet auf, ruft uns die Stimme, which featured some superb singing by the male voices over the top of the broad lines of the sopranos.

The fugal chorus from Herz und Mund and Tat und Leben was a highlight with some beautiful soloing from Fomison’s valveless trumpet, followed by Jesu, joy of man’s desiring led by the pure oboe of Adam Masters.

The tour of Sydney and Melbourne lasts until 19 April and it comes highly recommended if you can get a ticket.

Australian Brandenburg Orchestra presents Choral Splendour at City Recital Hall, Sydney until 15 April, and Elisabeth Murdoch Hall, Melbourne Recital Centre 16–19 April.