Australian Haydn Ensemble, Skye McIntosh & Erin Helyard - The Mozart Album (2024)

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Australian Haydn Ensemble, Skye McIntosh & Erin Helyard - The Mozart Album (2024)

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The Australian Haydn Ensemble stands at the forefront of Australia’s historically informed orchestras. Comprised of world-class musicians on period instruments, AHE is deeply dedicated to historical research and authentic interpretation, preserving the legacy of Classical masters while captivating audiences with their artistry and passion. Here they turn their brilliance to the music of Mozart: his beloved Piano Concerto in C Major (known as the ‘Elvira Madigan’ after it was immortalised on the 1967 movie), his sparkling Third Violin Concerto, and the magnificent ‘Prague’ Symphony.

Pianist Erin Helyard (Limelight magazine’s Critics’ Choice Australian Artist of the Year in 2023) is a virtuoso performer with a profound knowledge of the piano techniques of Mozart’s day and a talent for bringing to life the sound world of the 18th century, with its unique blend of elegance, drama and passion. Mozart himself was an international star on the keyboard, with audiences clamouring to hear him perform his own concertos, and his C Major concerto is a work of pure delight, featuring quicksilver passagework, dancing rhythms and, at its heart, an exquisitely lyrical moonlit serenade.

Mozart was also a brilliant violinist, and although he resisted pressure from his father to build a performing career on the instrument, his intimate knowledge of the violin’s potential enabled him to write five spectacular concertos, all in the same year, when he was just 19 years old. Acclaimed violinist Skye McIntosh offers a joyous rendition of Concerto No. 3.

The Prague Symphony, from its grand opening chords to its boisterous finale, was an instant hit at the premiere performance. Audiences in the Czech capital couldn’t get enough of it: within a dozen years it had been performed there over a hundred times. It is, as one contemporary wrote, a masterpiece, ‘full of surprising transitions, with a fast, fiery motion that immediately awakens in the soul the expectation of something sublime.’ The Australian Haydn Ensemble’s performance brings out every nuance of Mozart’s ingenious counterpoint, striking harmonic shifts and emotional energy.

Australian Haydn Ensemble
Erin Helyard, piano, director (Piano Concerto No. 21 in C Major, KV467, Symphony No. 38 in D major, KV504 ‘Prague’)
Skye McIntosh, violin, director (Violin Concerto No. 3 in G major, KV216)