In the years following the advent of the printing press but before that of recorded sound, published arrangements of larger scale orchestral works for chamber ensembles became – like arrangements for piano four-hands – an important way of disseminating new music. Through these publications, those who couldn’t travel to hear a new symphony or overture by Mozart could explore it in a domestic setting, in smaller forces, with friends. It was this concept that HIP band Australian Haydn Ensemble embraced in their latest programme, Beethoven’s Emperor – a concept well suited to the intimate space of the Sydney Opera House’s Utzon Room.

The eight-piece ensemble kicked off the evening with Girolamo Masi’s 1800 arrangement of the Overture to Mozart’s The Magic Flute, the stately opening – its grandeur slightly diminished in the smaller line-up – giving way to tight energy as the piece took off. The arrangement offered a different palette to that which contemporary audiences (enjoying the benefit of their easy access to recorded audio) are familiar with in this work – Melissa Farrow’s period classical flute colouring the edges of a sound rooted in strings and filled out harmonically by Neal Peres Da Costa’s fortepiano.

But while the line-up offered more limited options in...