Concert, From the Sydney Amateur Concerts 1826, SCM Early Music Ensemble, Neal Peres Da Costa (director), Sydney Conservatorium of Music, 27 May 2021

Abstract

This is a live audio-visual recording of a public concert that recreated a unique colonial concert experience. The featured musical works are drawn from the programs of the first ever series of public concerts held in Sydney 195 years ago, The Sydney Amateur Concerts of 1826, and are performed on instruments of the period, and in an historically informed manner. The music includes orchestral and instrumental works by Mozart, Corelli, Pleyel, Samuel Arnold, and only the second Australian performance (after that of 1826) of Hyacinthe Jardin's Ouverture for winds (c. 1795). The vocal music includes songs and glees by Samuel Webbe, William Shield, John Wall Callcott, and William Horsley. Also included are performances of two versions of an Aboriginal women's song of the Ngarigu people (Monaro plains): the first in the Westernised transcription for solo voice and piano as published by John Lhotsky as 'A Song of the Women of the Menero Tribe' (Sydney 1834, the earliest piece of sheet music published in NSW); and the second in a restored traditional version, 'Gundji gawalgu yuri' (Linda Barwick and Jakelin Troy 2021), the performers including Ngarigu women singers. Full program details of the concert and the names of all the orchestral, instrumental, and vocal performers are contained in the PDF file.