Top quality musicianship plus some authentic performance’s from Valve and Da Costa.

Utzon Room, Sydney Opera House

June 1, 2014

The Arabian Nights tale of the man who went to Cairo to seek a fortune only to be beaten and robbed and finally find treasure buried in his own backyard must resonate with Australian concert promoters. Our orchestras and opera companies have the clout to attract the most exciting international musicians, but there is also a rich vein of talent on our doorstep, especially when it comes to chamber music.

We’re lucky to have in the Australian Chamber Orchestra what has been hailed by overseas critics as “the best chamber orchestra in the world” and two of its regular members, principal cello Timo-Veikko Valve and harpsichordist Neal Peres Da Costa, featured in the third of the excellent 2014 Utzon Series in the Opera House’s Utzon Room.

Valve swapped the four strings of his 1729 Giuseppe Guarneri for a five-string piccolo cello, held Baroque style between the knees, lending an added air of authenticity to the four JS Bach pieces on the program. Peres Da Costa, playing an Andrew Garlick harpsichord made in Somerset, England, showed why he is in such demand both...