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Orchestra 143 was founded in December 2002 to fill a perceived gap in the musical scene on Sydney's North Shore. While it was possible to find high quality performances of chamber music and of the large orchestral repertoire, there were few if any ensembles regularly performing music for smaller orchestra. Hence the formation of Orchestra 143, which is devoted to the music of the baroque, classical and early romantic period – specifically, from 1685 (birth of Johann Sebastian Bach) to 1828 (death of Franz Schubert). Orchestra 143 seeks not only to perform works by the great composers of this period – Bach, Handel, Vivaldi, Haydn, Mozart, Beethoven, Mendelssohn, Schubert – but also to acquaint its audiences with interesting music by lesser known composers such as C.P.E. Bach, Corelli, Arriaga, Bellini, Boyce, Stamitz and Wassenaer.
A Christmas concert with the Joubert Singers.
This programme will be given twice.
Music by Bach, Pergolesi and others.
The Concerto Armonico, one of a set of six, provides an appropriate companion piece to the Pergolesi, having been for many years attributed to Pergolesi himself. It was only as recently as 1979 that the concerti were proved to have been written in the eighteenth century by one Count Unico Wilhelm von Wassenaer; they were published anonymously since at that time it was socially unacceptable for a member of the nobility to be known as a composer. The third concerto includes a vigorous fugal treatment of the ancient canon "Non nobis, Domine", a (not very) slow movement in galant style, and a vivacious finale.
Bach's greatest achievements in the field of orchestral music are the six Brandenburg concertos and the four orchestral suites. The first suite, scored for oboes, bassoon and strings, opens with an Overture comprising a majestic opening with a complex contrapuntal sequel, and continues with a set of dances ranging from the familiar minuet and bourrée to the more rarely encountered forlane. To complete our programme we welcome baritone Matt Thomas to perform arias from Handel's operatic and oratorio repertoire.