Music / Baroque Treasures, Musica Da Camera Canberra. At Holy Covenant Anglican Church, September 7. Reviewed by IAN McLEAN.

Established more than 40 years ago, Musica Da Camera Canberra has developed throughout its history from being a small Baroque ensemble to now encompassing a wide variety of musical periods and styles.

It’s philosophy of engaging different conductors/musical directors to present each concert
has ensured the maintenance of a fresh and energetic approach to music making.

This was certainly evident in this concert with the group on this occasion led by “energiser bunny”,
John Ma.

Ma is a well known and highly respected violinist/violist and viola d’amore player who specialises in early music. He has performed throughout the world but is Canberra based where he plays with ensembles as varied as Pinchgut Opera, the Australian Brandenburg Orchestra, the Australian Haydn Ensemble and the CSO.

He led the ensemble with incredible vigour and an obvious excitement in every aspect of his playing.
This passion translated to the audience who bopped along to stirring Menuets as if attending a
concert by Pink. It was a constant delight to experience the joy evident in his music making.

Ma also provided humorous background stories about the composers and their music and these
included some quite fascinating and funny yarns. How clever to describe a piece of music from the
late 1600’s as an “early version of an advertising jingle for salt mines”.

He added the note that audience members should “listen out for the hammer and pick axes” during music which did in fact depict a saltworks in a small German town. The cellos and harpsichord duly did create most authentic hammering sounds.

Five works from lesser known Baroque composers were featured with L’Europe galante by French
composer Andre Campra opening the show. Ma amusingly explained that this piece, little stories
about love, combined opera and ballet (or singing and dancing) with music, making it the forerunner

Next to Italian composer Locatelli and his emotive Il Pianto d’Arianna (The Tears of Ariadne). With
lovely melodies this expressive and often dramatic piece alternated between anguish, agitation and
tenderness. Playing from the ensemble contrasted between energetic and passionate,
appropriately matching the intended mood of the moment.

Off to Spain for Boccherini’s Night Music of the Streets of Madrid – a soundscape capturing moods
and movement of an 18th century evening in the city which ranged from church bells to military
marching and a Menuet depicting blind beggars.

German John Fisher (who Ma explained had bits of his compositions pinched by both Bach and
Handel) wrote the inventive suite about the saltworks then the concert ended back in France with
Antoine Dauvergne’s Concert in B-flat Major, Op. 3 No 1, an elegant example of mid-18 th century
music which blended the grand Baroque style with the emerging music of the Classical period.

Playing throughout this fascinating and most engaging concert was robust, full bodied and rock solid.
There was occasional intonation weakness in upper registers during quieter, more exposed passages
but, overall, every player performed with vitality and love of their work.

This obvious enjoyment in quality music making fully engaged a happy audience which lapped up a fun concert of absorbing music from the Baroque period.