Exploring Mozart’s multi-faceted genius takes a lifetime, but this concert directed by Rachael Beesley and featuring the Australian Romantic & Classical Orchestra with emerging performers from the Young Mannheim Symphonists gave as fine a snapshot of it as any. Curiously titled Tempestuous Skies, a better title would have been The Bold, the Beautiful and the Daemonic. The bold being the ‘Jupiter’ Symphony, the beautiful the Piano Concerto in A and the daemonic the Don Giovanni Overture. The Serenata Notturna  (I’d never realised that the title is actually tautological – by definition, a serenade is a work performed at, or inspired by night) contains abundant humour, some subtle, some broad.

Neal Peres Da Costa on fortepiano. Photo © Robert Catto

The work is scored for strings and timpani with two orchestras and solo quartet, with double bass instead of cello, providing an almost ironic element to the quartet passages. It alternates between the conscious  “pomp and circumstance” of Salzburg’s social A-list and more popular “tunes”. The orchestra achieved some delectable sonorities and portamenti throughout, although I could have done with less physical humour.

The arrival of the concerto brought...