Delightful way to tune up for tour

VAN DIEMEN’S BAND: A LA DANZA Hobart Town Hall October 6

LAUNCHING a national tour, Van Diemen’s Band presented a program grounded in dance and full of contrasts.

This was pure delight from start to finish.

Starting with the lively Fandango Quintet by Luigi Boccherini, these performers provided results that were models of period performance style and taste.

Brilliant Australian cellist Catherine Jones, now based in Italy, dispatched cello concertos by Antonio Vivaldi (in A minor, RV418) and Nicola Fiorenza (in F, 1728) with vibrant tone and superbly accurate intonation.

US guitarist/theorbist William Carter was a force to be reckoned with throughout the concert. His exquisite rendition on baroque guitar of dances by the somewhat elusive 17/18th century Spanish composer, guitarist and priest Gaspar Sanz was quite breathtaking in its restrained beauty and control.

The outcome here, drawing on rhythmic cues and snatches of melody, was as much Carter’s detective work as Sanz’s invention.

The other distinguished players were Julia Fredersdorff and Lucinda Moon (violins), Katie Yap (viola and violin), and Natasha Kraemer (cello).

The La Ritirata di Madrid by Boccherini is the concluding piece of his seven-movement work La musica notturna della strade di Madrid ( Night Music of the Streets of Madrid). The illusion of the musicians advancing towards and then receding away from the listener provided a thrilling climax to the evening’s music making.