After a week of being guided through the art of historically informed performance, young musicians of the Australian National Academy of Music joined forces with their mentors for a one-off concert celebrating mid-18th century Vienna.

This culmination of Melbourne ensemble Genesis Baroque’s ANAM residency also featured a fellow resident and Baroque specialist, soprano Sarah Macliver.

Sarah Macliver. Photo supplied

Presented at ANAM’s home, the Abbotsford Convent cultural precinct, the program centred on Joseph Haydn, who was in Vienna during a particularly splendid period for the city. It also featured Haydn’s Viennese associates: composers Nicola Porpora and Carl Ditters von Dittersdorf, librettist Pierre Metastasio, and his student, Marianna Martines.

Rosina Auditorium’s spartan interior aside, this intimate concert gave the audience a sense of the performance experience in old Vienna’s imperial court and aristocratic homes. The immediacy and intensity of sound was exciting, and the opportunity to watch musicians’ technique and expressions from as little as a metre away was also a treat.

I particularly enjoyed my almost side-on view of Genesis Baroque Principal Music Director Donald Nicolson, who conducted from the harpsichord with animated expressions and gestures worthy of a mime. There were six...