★★★★½ The visiting virtuoso proves his acclaim as the “Paganini of the recorder”.

City Recital Hall, Sydney
February 24, 2016

In their opening concert of 2016 the Australian Brandenburg Orchestra joined forces with the Swiss recorder maestro, Maurice Steger. As much an impish trouper as music maker, Steger can rightly lay claim to the tag “Paganini of the recorder”; his performance was an almost unthinkable virtuosic (and indeed athletic) feat. Paganini was famously thought to have had associations with the devil, such was his prodigious talent on the violin. Though his charming smile gave lie to it, Steger’s virtuosity radiates a similar sense of devilish influence. The evening, however, is not all awe-inspiring wizardry. As the ABO’s charismatic director Paul Dyer pointed out at the start, the concert consisted of a thoughtful collection of Baroque and early Classical works, with Vivaldi, Telemann and Handel’s music interspersed with some hidden gems by the lesser-known composers Gallo, Fiorenza, Rittler and Geminiani. 

Vivaldi’s Concerto in G Major kicked things off, and an almost collective gasp was audible around City Recital Hall as Steger literally jumped in, crouching and thrusting with each semiquaver-riddled musical line. The fast outer two movements contained such high-octane, exhilarating...