Australian Baroque’s flair for theatrical, inventive programming is once again on full display in this Sunday matinee.

At the heart of the concert is an unashamedly brash, foot-stomping take on Vivaldi’s Le quattro stagioni, interspersed with three vocal works drawn from two of the composer’s operas and a pasticcio serenata, as well as a flute concerto from the same set featuring the celebrated Il Gardellino.

Australian Baroque & West Australian Opera (Helen Kruger, centre): Vivaldi’s Seasons. Photo supplied

Before each violin concerto, violist Christian Read delivers evocative readings of the composer’s accompanying sonnets, with the ensemble providing musical excerpts that illuminate Vivaldi’s masterful word-painting. These moments, together with the avian, elemental and amorous imagery of the flute concerto and vocal items, create an all-pervasive pastoral atmosphere. This is, in every sense, four seasons in a single concert.

The four violin concertos are electrifying – risky, imaginative and rhetorically charged.

Autumn: the drunkard’s erratic progress, the hunters’ ebullience and the hunted’s tragic flight. Winter: the elements’ implacable indifference, the music splintering with startlingly realised sonic effects.

Spring: spacious birdsong, surging waters and rustic dances. Summer: languid heat, raging storms, the cuckoo’s insistent call and the goldfinch’s stratospheric sweetness. 

These vivid scenes are not only beautifully sculpted by director and violin soloist Helen Kruger – whose formidable technique and daring bring the thrill of a tightrope act – but by the ensemble as a whole. Special praise is due to the marvellous continuo section, which infuses the faster movements with the conviviality of an Irish pub, and in particular to theorbist and Baroque guitarist Nick Pollock, whose battute passages are a delight.

Australian Baroque & West Australian Opera: Vivaldi’s Seasons. Photo supplied

Among the instrumental fireworks come further sparks from WA Opera Principal Artist soprano Prudence Sanders and transverse flautist Andy Skinner in Vivaldi’s Quell’augellin che canta (The Little Bird That Sings), the heavily ornamented da capo section nearly bringing the house down. The cheeky inclusion of a plastic bird whistle raises smiles throughout.

Skinner stays on stage for a barnstorming account of the Flute Concerto in G major RV438, its radiant Largo flanked by two sunny Allegros delivered with finesse and gusto.

The remaining two vocal works bring lyrical repose. In Sovente il sole from Andromeda liberata, WA Opera Principal Artist Brigitte Heuser’s rich, warm mezzo suffuses the music with the sun’s radiance after a storm and the sea’s calm after a tempest. Finally, Sanders and Heuser give voice to lovers Aristea and Megacle in Ne’ giorni tuoi felici from L’Olimpiade, bringing the program to a close with heart-stopping tenderness.

An exquisite conclusion to an exquisite concert.