A 13th century Persian poet and life-long scholar of the Koran, Jalaluddin Rumi boasts a near-mystical status in poetry.

He wrote of love, passion, loss and longing with a quiet complexity inseparable from his faith. More recently, his Sufism has often been lost to a legacy co-opted by Western wellness culture and Instagram pull-quotes. But here, in Ottoman Baroque, the Australian Brandenburg Orchestra and Choir reconnects Rumi to the divine – and takes us along with them.

Ottoman Baroque. Photo © Laura Manariti

These concerts are the culmination of a 10-year process for Brandenburg’s Artistic Director Paul Dyer, who has worked with Ottoman-Turkish musicians Serhat Sarpel and Refik Hakan Talu to curate a program that begins with an original triptych performance of Rumi’s heart-wrenching poem, This Marriage, composed by Australian Joseph Twist. Performers sport glittering Turkish tunics of navy and black or gorgeous Ottoman era-inspired gowns.

Act I is punctuated by three versions of Rumi’s short poem from Twist, Eric Whitacre and Ed-Newton-Rex. Standing front stage without sheet music, the Brandenburg Choir strike a confident pose, blending beautifully to lend a stirring profundity to Rumi’s words. The soprano line of Twist’s opening composition...