Read the review by Paul Nolan, in Sydney Arts Guide, June 2026.

Salut! Baroque have, once again, given an outstanding concert, full of vitality and variety. The hour passed very quickly, and all of this unfamiliar music was greatly enjoyed, consumed, and appreciated, both from a compositional and performance perspective.

The theme for this concert was Bohemian Rhapsody – not the song by Queen arranged for baroque orchestra – but all the baroque music composed from the region of Bohemia (see program above), which is the most western and largest region of the Czech Republic (as outlined in the most excellent notes that came with this concert).

The musicians walk onstage and begin the concert with a flourish, a courtly phrase. It sounded too tuneful to be tuning. This contrasted markedly with the rest of the concert in that, after every piece, one of the stringed instruments had to retune. Ah, the joys of baroque instruments!

The only complaint I have, and it is a trivial one, is that there is not enough interaction between audience and performers, and that it is easy to get lost in the program. I thought that I kept a good track of what piece was currently being performed, but I might have been wrong. In any case, I feel like it would not hurt at all if someone from Salut! Baroque spoke to their audience. Perhaps it would be about the music that they have performed, or are about to perform, or how their day is going, etc. I find that the 4th wall between audience and performers is much lower than it used to be in other concerts.

The performers demonstrated a high level of technical skill and ensemble coordination. Fast passages were executed with precision, while dynamic contrasts helped maintain the drama in the performances. I really like how the non-participants sat unobtrusively on the side of the stage, waiting in support for the current performers and ready to rejoin the orchestra when it was their turn. Salut! Baroque are well rehearsed and deeply immersed in this repertoire, and we all enjoyed their exceptional musicianship. The performance was both educational and entertaining, proving that unfamiliar baroque music can still be discovered in exciting and innovative ways.

Salut! Baroque is three-quarters the way through their colourful, enlightening and well-named plus packages 2026 Subscription Series of concerts. Named ‘Power, Passion & Politics’, no concert in the series reflects all these qualities as well as the recent offering.

A Baroque ‘Bohemian Rhapsody’ was well constructed to wow us and give a huge variety of sound (much like that other rhapsody, the epic musical tale by seventies rock music storytellers Queen).

This rhapsody-in-concert’s smooth drama and pleasing variety comes from careful selection of works by composers born in the European Bohemia (mostly around what we know as the western Czech Republic), composers who travelled to work in courts there from outside Bohemia as well as expats leaving Bohemia to take their music to other places.

Following the end to the horrific Thirty Years War in 1648 and restructuring of states, leadership for countries and new rulers keen on the Arts, the Power, Passion and Politics themes of Salut! Baroque’s 2026 series title were very active as the European lifestyles and political structure changed, affecting the Arts environment also.

Co-Artistic Directors Sally Melhuish and Tim Blomfield grace us with another smooth moving journey through the chosen theme. There is music new to us, by composers we associate with the Baroque Period or are more familiar with and some gems of interesting approaches to standard Baroque forms.

The blend of Bohemian, Venetian and Veronese composers heard makes for a rich melting pot, as was the world at that time. The celebration of Bohemian / Czech born creatives coping with conflict, new courts and continuity following war is a fine one for us to follow.

This Bohemian Rhapsody has ten passionate rockstar Early Music and Historically Informed Performance experts who make absolute hits out of the eleven programmed items for us.

The interlocking compositional results of the European reshuffle of territories, plus importantly the musical opportunities and jobs on offer post-war were brilliantly explored in Tim Blomfield’s programme notes which were very rewarding to read either at the concert venue or afterwards.

The concert began with a sonata by Biber, who moved to Salzburg from his birthplace in Bohemia. Then the concert thrusts us into music from well known Antonio Vivaldi, who spent time at the Prague court of Count Morzin. The work written in Prague that we heard was the Concerto in D minor RV93- the Largo movement. The assembled performers demonstrated the beauty of this movement, and such an interpretation shows why Vivaldi was a hit in Bohemia.

In this Largo, George Wills impressed with a beautifully restrained and carefully shaped baroque guitar line, over a superbly sympathetic, neat bed of strings for the accompaniment. This string team was led well by guest first violinist, Rachael Beesley and this was one of the most beautiful and finely balanced slow movement moments of the afternoon.

Beesley is well- known to fans of Australian Romantic & Classical Orchestra as its Co-Artistic Director, concertmaster and conductor. Her leadership skill and violin playing were showcased throughout this concert, but significantly during the Passacaglia from Sonata a4 in D minor by Bertali.

This performance featured the smooth, well-shaped handling of filigree by the Salut! Baroque string team for this event.

Later in the programme, Beesley gave us an exquisite moment as featured soloist. This was during another passionate slow movement played smoothly and with even, unhurried gesturing.

This was a memorable performance of the Grave movement of František Jiránek’s Concerto in D minor for Violin IFJ 11. There were gasps of appreciation from the crowd following its exposure (perhaps for the first time) to the magic of this Bohemian composer.

The prize for the most unique composition featured for me goes to the excerpt from Zelenka’s Hypocondrie a7 Concertanti, ZWV 187, composed in Prague in 1723. This programmatic work was given colourful treatment by the ensemble as motifs presented were to represent various feelings of an hypochondriac’s imaginings of illness.

Some signature Salut! Baroque’s ensemble excellence and effective programming came with more lively music from the Bohemians and their foreign Baroque contemporaries. As well as the hear-a-pin-drop slower items on the programme, the works by Fux and Schmelzer featured textures lithely gilded by entries of the recorders.

The overture-suites heard in this concert were by Fux and by the Bohemian expat to Germany, Johann Fischer. These works emerged from the ensembles playing them with sold drama and an illustration from Salut! Baroque that set forms in the hands of capable composers are never staid, predictable or textbook-plain in nature and that they give expert musicians a kaleidoscope of expressive tools with which to work.

Exciting to watch in this regard was Rachael Beesley’s easy athleticism when rendering of her violin line in the final movement of the Fux suite, which was full of challenging filigree and complex figuration.

We look forward to the final Salut! Baroque subscription concert for 2026 – ‘Charms in Musick’, which comes to Sydney on Sunday 15 November at 3pm, once more in the Verbrugghen Hall.