The Melbourne Chamber Orchestra (MCO) closes its 2025 season with Nightingale, a program of Baroque and contemporary music for string orchestra and harpsichord, led by guest conductor Donald Nicolson at the harpsichord.  

The program opens almost imperceptibly with Henry Purcell’s Fantazia Upon One Note. Violist Merewyn Bramble sustains the titular note with hypnotic focus and serenity, while the ensemble spins an intricate contrapuntal web of fast and slow-moving passages around it. 

Australian composer Colin Brumby’s rarely-played work for strings and harpsichord, The Phoenix and the Turtle (inspired by Shakespeare’s poem) was written almost three hundred years later. The harpsichord’s decidedly un-Baroque rhythms and harmonies add a piquant texture to the peaceful, reflective atmosphere created by the string ensemble.   

Melbourne Chamber Orchestra: Nightingale. Photo © Catherine Turner

Bach’s Harpsichord Concerto No. 1 in D minor showcases Nicolson’s virtuosity and the sweet yet soft tone of his lovely crimson harpsichord, with the MCO providing a lively, nuanced and sympathetic accompaniment. 

The second half of the program opens with another hidden gem: a beautiful rendition of L’Usignuolo (The Nightingale) by lesser-known seventeenth century Venetian singer-composer, Barbara Strozzi. 

MCO bassist Emma...