Bringing Mozart to Life

Fresh from a Queensland tour and sold-out Sydney Opera House performance, The Australian Romantic & Classical Orchestra tours rural New South Wales and Victoria, presented by Music in the Regions.

The Australian Romantic & Classical Orchestra (ARCO) is dedicated to bringing music to life through vibrant, historically informed performances of orchestral and chamber music from the late 18th to early 20th centuries.

Performing on period instruments, ARCO offers audiences a lush sound that transports you back in time, with sparkling music from Schubert, Mozart and Emilie Mayer – including Mozart’s beloved Clarinet Quintet.

State of the Art
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Hear Mozart as he intended on orchestra's tour

Music lovers are offered a chance to step into a time machine and travel back to the 18th and 19th centuries, to hear authentic music from what was known as the romantic era.

Five members of the Australian Romantic & Classical Orchestra are heading to the region, with performances at Huskisson, Bowral, Mallacoota, Wolumla and Kangaroo Valley between October 18 and 26.

They will be performing music by Schubert, Mayer and Mozart, on original instruments from the period in which the music was composed and first performed.

"They look different and sound different," said ARCO co-artistic director and clarinettist Nicole van Bruggen.

Glenn Ellard, South Coast Register
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More Than Music: ARCO Chamber Tour Inspires Regional Orchestras

“I personally love playing in regional areas, much more than playing in the city,” says Nicole van Bruggen, one of the co-founders of ARCO – the Australian Romantic & Classical Orchestra – and one of a quintet of leading players from the group on tour across the NSW South Coast this spring.

At the heart of the program is the famous Mozart clarinet quintet in A major, composed in the late 18th Century, with Nicole on the clarinet. The tour starts off at the Jervis Bay Maritime Museum in Huskisson, on Saturday 18 October.

“When we go to regional areas, people really appreciate that we’re there. I feel like it’s so much more impactful for us as performers and educators. It’s really one of my favourite things to do.”

Samantha Tannous, Jervis Bay Weekend
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Interview with Nicole van Bruggen on Mozart's Clarinet tour

ABC Wide Bay Breakfast host David Dowsett talks to Australian Romantic & Classical Orchestra’s co-artistic director and principal clarinettist Nicole van Bruggen about the ARCO tour to Bundaberg, Fraser Coast and Gympie, her historical basset clarinet and so much more.

David Dowsett, ABC Wide Bay
Listen here (starts at 45.00)

Beauty of ARCO wows audiences and local musicians

Dancing strings, lilting clarinet – the Australian Romantic & Classic Orchestra has returned to Bundaberg with sparkling chamber music from three brilliant composers.

The ‘Mozart’s Clarinet’ tour soars from joyful Schubert to the freshness of female composer Emilie Mayer and one of music’s best-loved pieces: Mozart’s Clarinet Quintet, played on a rare period basset clarinet.

ARCO co-artistic director and clarinetist Nicole van Bruggen said they were excited to bring this gorgeous music for the first time on period instruments to this part of Queensland.

“And we’re even happier to partner with so many wonderful local ensembles, music educators and filmmakers to celebrate Mozart with the whole community.”

Angela Norval, Bundaberg Today (photo: Elka Scherer)

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Get down with Wolfgang this weekend

Dancing strings, lilting clarinet – the Australian Romantic & Classical Orchestra returns to regional Queensland with sparkling chamber music from three brilliant composers.

The ‘Mozart’s Clarinet’ tour soars from joyful Schubert to the freshness of female composer Emilie Mayer and one of music’s best-loved pieces: Mozart’s Clarinet Quintet, played on a rare period basset clarinet. 

Read full story in Gympie Today

ARCO brings Mozart's Clarinet to region

The Australian Romantic and Classical Orchestra (ARCO) is coming to Bundaberg to showcase the beautiful and uplifting concert tour, Mozart’s Clarinet.

The tour soars from joyful Schubert to the freshness of female composer Emilie Mayer and one of music’s best-loved pieces: Mozart’s Clarinet Quintet, played on a rare period basset clarinet.

ARCO co-artistic director and clarinetist Nicole van Bruggen said it was a show not to be missed.

“We’re excited to bring this gorgeous music for the first time on period instruments to this part of Queensland,” she said.

Bundaberg Now
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Bringing Mozart's Clarinet

The Australian Romantic & Classical Orchestra brings Mozart’s beloved Clarinet Quintet, musical talks and community film screenings to Bundaberg in a range of options that has to be seen to be believed, embracing a variety of musical tastes, talents and age groups.

The ‘Mozart’s Clarinet’ tour soars from joyful Schubert to the freshness of female composer Emilie Mayer and one of music’s best-loved pieces:, Mozart’s Clarinet Quintet, played on a rare period basset clarinet.

Angela Norval, Bundaberg Today
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Midsummer Dreams - Australian Romantic & Classical Orchestra

The Australian Romantic & Classical Orchestra (ARCO), under leader Rachael Beesley, are a crack Antipodean outfit defined by a rigorous approach to historically informed performance particularly pertaining to the 19th century and its 18th- and 20th-century fringes.
[In ‘Midsummer Dreams’] the Beethoven Symphony No. 8 thrillingly builds up the sound with great individual timbres, and energetic heft balanced with lightness throughout.
ARCO end with more Mendelssohn, this time the ‘Scottish’ Symphony, the opening made afresh with distinctive period wind. The sound is by turns tender, deep and rich, with an energy that can be truly exciting; the final movement is full of gutsy drive, superb phrasing and expression.
Sarah Unwin Jones, BBC Music Magazine
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Beethoven and Mendelssohn feature in new CD by ARCO

The concert was recorded at a live performance in Sydney in August 2023, but the program was also performed at the Albert Hall in Canberra.

ARCO’s Operations and Communications manager (and double bass player) Rosemary Ponnekanti says the recording combines the generally upbeat but often overlooked Beethoven Symphony No 8 in F major with the more moody and romantic Mendelssohn ‘Scottish’ Symphony No 3 in A minor.

The orchestra, founded in 2012 by the late Richard Gill, comes together for three tours a year and is considered to be the forefront of historically informed performance.

Richard Scherer, Living Arts Canberra
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Midsummer Dreams

One of Australia’s HIPpest bands just got a lot hipper.

This latest recording from the Australian Romantic & Classical Orchestra under co-artistic director Rachael Beesley is a masterclass in historically informed performance (HIP), offering listeners an electrifying, visceral experience that transports them back to a richly imagined 19th-century sound world. Indeed, these thrilling performances, captured live, of Mendelssohn’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream – Overture, Op. 21, Beethoven’s Symphony No. 8 in F, and Mendelssohn’s Symphony No. 3 in A minor, Scottish (1843 version), are among the finest and most exciting I’ve heard.

Will Yeoman, Limelight
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Amadeus will rock Gympie with Mozart mini-fest

Local classical music lovers can rejoice because the Australian Romantic & Classical Orchestra will be bringing a Mozart mini-festival to Gympie on 28-29 June, with a concert and film screening.

Gympie Today
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Review: St Matthew Passion, Sydney Philharmonia Choirs

The Australian Romantic & Classical Orchestra (ARCO) was made for this feat [the first Australian HIP performance of the Bach/Mendelsson 1841 St Matthew Passion]. ARCO joined forces with the Sydney Philharmonia Choirs’ Chamber Singers and VOX choirs under the direction of SPC’s Associate Music Director Dr Elizabeth Scott in the Concert Hall of the Sydney Opera House.

[…]

In the heart-rending Erbarme dich.…Rachael Beesley’s performance was faultless and arresting, and her phrasing especially thoughtful….Apart from the prominent use of cellos and bass, the most interesting change in orchestration in the Mendelssohn version is the use of clarinets. In the Baroque, the oboe came closest to the human voice. In the Classical and Romantic age, it was the clarinet. Nicole van Bruggen on clarinet added the nostalgic warmth that the Mache Dich calls for.

Aryan Mohseni, State of the Art
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Review: Sydney Philharmonia Choirs 'St Matthew Passion'

Sydney Philharmonia Choirs’ Vox and Chamber ensembles have come together with the Australian Romantic and Classical Orchestra (ARCO) to present Bach’s St Matthew Passion in the 1841 arrangement of the work by Felix Mendelssohn.

[…]

At times it feels like a revelation, a radically different palette of tone colours, bringing unfamiliar texture and suspense to the score.

[…]

Concertmaster Rachael Beesley and flutist Melissa Farrow bring mellifluous virtuosity to their obligato accompaniments while Teddy Tahu Rhodes shines as a charismatic and eloquent Christus. Finally, the hero of the evening is Andrew Goodwin as the Evangelist, his voice reaching into the heavens with sublime ease.

Harriet Cunningham, Sydney Morning Herald
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St Matthew Passion – Mendelssohn’s 1841 version

The Sydney Philharmonia Choirs (SPC) has premiered in Australia this first historically authentic and rare performance of Bach’s St Matthew Passion, Mendelssohn version, at the Sydney Opera House…Dr Elizabeth Scott, the Associate Music Director of SPC, conducted with a minimalist conducting style, but with maximum effect, the combined Chamber Singers and VOX choirs, the soloists and the Australian Romantic & Classical Orchestra (ARCO) performing on period instruments.

Bach wrote some very beautiful music for this Passion, with his orchestral accompaniment played brilliantly by ARCO. This includes a mesmerising flute quartet and oboe solo, as well as featured violin parts performed superbly by Rachael Beesley, the Concertmaster and Co-Artistic Director of ARCO.

Shirley Politzer, J-Wire
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Review: St Matthew Passion (Mendelssohn version)

Australian Romantic & Classical Orchestra continue to provide audiences with quality historically informed performance firsts in exciting orchestral concerts and recordings. This Holy Thursday that excitement went next level, with a collaboration which presented Mendelssohn’s 1841 arrangement of Bach’s St Matthew Passion, as Mendelssohn would have expressed it at the time.

[…]

Outbursts and high volume and the shifts to choir as characterised groups were achieved with great dramatic force and contrast, well supported by the HIP colours and shapes from Mendelssohn’s ‘Bach-plus’ orchestra paying Mendelssohn’s creatively orchestrated cover version.

[…]

The many fine creative and research strands to this event will hold an important part in Sydney’s performance history, and in the Mendelssohn and Bach performance histories both in Australia and globally. This project showcases a stunning status quo and bright future for HIP performance practice plus choral and vocal music in this country.

Paul Nolan, Sydney Arts Guide
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Review: St Matthew Passion (Sydney Philharmonia Choirs, Australian Romantic & Classical Orchestra)

With the Philharmonia’s Chamber and VOX choirs being joined by the Australian Romantic and Classical Orchestra (ARCO) for this one-off concert under Associate Music Director Elizabeth Scott, a Sydney audience got Australia’s first taste of what [Mendelssohn’s 1841 revival of Bach’s St Matthew Passion] sounded like.

[…]

The mellower sound of the clarinet and basset horn featured enchantingly alongside Melissa Farrow’s flute solo in soprano Penelope Mills’s ariaAus Liebe, will mein Heiland sterben…and ARCO Concertmaster Rachael Beesley’s gut stringed solo violin added a concerto-like feel to the accompaniment of the beautiful pivotal aria Embarme Dich….There were moments of sheer magic – irresistible Mendelssohnian textures over Bach’s glorious tunes – as well as tenderness, majesty and despair.

Steve Moffat, Limelight
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Review: Sydney Philharmonia breathes new life into Bach

What we heard at the Sydney Opera House on Thursday evening was not just Bach, it was Mendelssohn’s Bach: his 1841 version for the Thomaskirche in Leipzig, heard for the first time in Australia in a historically informed performance. This was an ambitious, rich, and at times revelatory collaboration between the Australian Romantic & Classical Orchestra and Sydney Philharmonia Choirs under Elizabeth Scott, with soloists of exceptional calibre. A partnership I hope we’ll hear again.

[…]

A packed Opera House…(and) an extraordinary collaboration…brought more than just power. It brought tenderness, clarity and, in moments, transcendence.

Pepe Newton, ClassikON
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Review: Midsummer Dreams

Is there a better piece of music by a teenager than Mendelssohn’s Overture to A Midsummer Night’s Dream? I’ve not heard a HIP version of it before and the different balance between the smaller string section and the older design wind and brass makes for a quite different listening experience: the textures more transparent, the overall sound considerably rawer.

[…]

The second movement of Mendelssohn’s Symphony No.3, Vivace non troppo, is probably the best of the nine individual tracks on the recording; it has everything I want to hear in Mendelssohn.

David Barker, Music Web International
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Thought and love poured into every note of ARCO's new CD

On Thursday the 27th of March, 2025 The Australian Romantic & Classical Orchestra will release their newest album Midsummer Dreams. … The result is a carefully curated, historically informed performance that balances precision and passion, transporting the listener as closely to the sound world of Mendelssohn and Beethoven’s 19th century audiences as humanly possible.

If you are looking to simply listen and enjoy, the amount of thought and love that has been poured into every note allows for an equally enriching experience.

Molly Jenkins, ClassikON
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