From its first public festival in 2005, the annual Festival of Voices has grown from its humble beginnings to become Australia’s premiere celebration of song, attracting international performers and incorporating a huge range of vocal styles.

This concert presents a varied selection of music by George Frederick Handel, opening with the purely instrumental Music for the Royal Fireworks, written in 1748 as part of a grand outdoor celebration.

King George II had wanted ‘martial music’ without ‘fiddles’. A reported hundred or so wind instruments along with kettledrums (and perhaps a few ‘fiddles’!) took part in that first performance.

Later, in the 20th century, it was the norm to perform this music in modern orchestral arrangements, notably the one by Sir Hamilton Harty.

Dixit Dominus: Federation Concert Hall, Hobart. Photo © Peter Donnelly

It is quite an achievement to mount a presentation in Hobart approximating what might have been heard in 1748, if with a somewhat smaller contingent of players; for this event 19 oboes, eight bassoons, contrabassoon, eight horns, nine trumpets, two timpani and two snare drums. The unique massed wind, brass and...