18th-century fireworks from Stephen Layton and the Sydney Symphony Orchestra

This year’s fashion of the major Australian symphony orchestras indulging in programs of 18th-century music now extends to the Sydney Symphony Orchestra, who have enlisted the esteemed services of English conductor Stephen Layton. Also on a wave at the moment is Perth soprano Sara Macliver, here in the repertoire for which she is perhaps best known. The venue was the recently refurbished concert hall of the Sydney Opera House, showing off its newly brilliant acoustics.

Beginning with Haydn’s Symphony no 44 in E minor, a pared down SSO launched into a crisp and transparent reading, conducted by Layton with graceful sweeping gestures. This work is dubbed the Trauersinfonie, indicating it is a work of grief or mourning, but it is ineluctably cheerful; it would seem that Haydn’s cheery personality just can’t help breaking through. After a not very stately Menuetto, even the Adagio sounded more like a sunny stroll in the park than a funeral procession. The Presto finale might be considered to be stormy, but not in any very threatening sort of way, and all was conveyed with warmth and precision. As with similar concerts, the orchestra on its modern instruments played with a level of polish especially in the strings which would have been surprising to the original 18th-century audiences.

The second item on the agenda was Bach’s Jauchzett Gott in allen Landen, BWV 51, a cantata for solo soprano and trumpet needing considerable virtuosity in both. The first movement  (“Shout for joy to God in all lands”) is particularly joyful and particularly demanding, calling for the two soloists to chase each other and intertwine up and down two octaves. Both were more than equal to the task, with Macliver making a clean attack on every note with well articulated coloratura, well partnered by Brent Grapes on trumpet. In the recitative (“Wir beten zu dem Tempel an”), the soprano brought a contemplative tone with judicious colouring, caressed the succeeding aria (“Höchster mache deine Güte”) with silvery tone and breathed long phrases in the chorale (“Sei lob und Preis”) with the violin and continuo. This segued into the renewed joy of the “Alleluja” with the return of the trumpet for an exhilarating climax.

Macliver returned, now in glittering green rather than dramatic black, for Mozart’s motet for solo soprano, Exsultate jubilate, another joyful virtuoso extravaganza, but one with a distinctly different soundscape from the Bach. Again we are shouting for joy but with rather less religious inhibition, and again Macliver effortlessly negotiated the coloratura, with marked richness in the low notes. The recitative was like a considered discussion, followed by a well-phrased Andante segueing into another exuberant “Alleluja”, in which the soloist nailed every note.

The last item was Handel’s ever-welcome Music for the Royal Fireworks. We had rather fewer than the 24 oboes etc originally involved (and no actual fireworks), nonetheless a performance to be relished. Layton seemed intent on moving from one movement to another as quickly as possible, which produced a not unattractive sense of urgency in the performance.  After a nice stately opening, we were swept into the excitement of the first Allegro, now with the brightness of three trumpets and kettledrum. The Bourré was played with contrasting delicacy from the woodwinds, followed by a sonorous Paix, then the aptly named Réjouissance had everyone sitting up. Finally, the first Menuet was delivered with temperature lowering grace, swelling into the more boisterous second; a satisfying and well received account.