It’s an exciting time to be alive for the Australian Haydn Ensemble: a new chairman of the board; a new high-profile patron in former NSW Governor Dame Marie Bashir; their debut CD released by ABC Classics and this concert, their first in the City Recital Hall. Filling the Utzon Room at the Opera House is an achievement, but being able to pack out the ground floor at Angel Place deserves praise indeed. And all of this has happened in a handful of seasons since the group was established in 2011 under Artistic Director Skye McIntosh.

For this celebratory tour the AHE invited along Erin Helyard, Artistic Director and Co-Founder of Pinchgut Opera and the Orchestra of the Antipodes, to direct them from the fortepiano and perform Mozart’s Piano Concerto No 14. Led by McIntosh, it was immediately apparent that this is a crack team. The strings have that light and airy quality so integral to the Classical sound but with plenty of muscle for the Sturm und Drang moments. The woodwind section is first class, solidly and reliably augmented by the Australian Brandenburg horn team of Darryl Poulson and Doree Dixon.

The programme opened with Michael Haydn’s Symphony No 25. Up until the beginning of...