ACO Nicolas Altstaedt

In the hands of Nicolas Altstaedt music is alive and centuries of tradition collapse into a single moment of profound clarity. Altstaedt is one of the world’s most exhilarating musicians, and his boldness, emotional depth and fierce musicality find a natural partner in the Australian Chamber Orchestra, an ensemble that shares his curiosity and delight in the act of music-making.

This program sweeps from the Baroque to the present, yet in the hands of Altstaedt and the Australian Chamber Orchestra it is one statement. At its heart is CPE Bach’s Cello Concerto in, a virtuosic showstopper of vivid emotion, sharp contrasts and unexpected turns of rhythm. The concert culminates in a string orchestra arrangement of Beethoven’s String Quartet Op.135, his final complete work and a piece of monumental foresight that holds the future of music within it.

Altstaedt and the Australian Chamber Orchestra are master storytellers, unwavering in their pursuit of musical grace and adventure. They hold the future and the past in equal measure. Here they celebrate composers who pushed the limits of their time, and reached for something beyond it.

'Altstaedt has technique to burn, near perfect intonation, superb control of extreme registers and harmonics… so impeccable is his rhythmic nuance, that one hung on every note as if they were the words of a master storyteller.' – The Australian

★★★★★ 'Enthusiastically executed… equal measures of rapture and fearlessness.' – The Age on Altstaedt Plays Haydn and Tchaikovsky, 2024