Madeleine Easton’s accompaniment on violin was so incredibly thoughtful, well-sustained and delicate that it was hard not to mistake it for Lawergren’s crystalline voice. It was the highlight of the afternoon.

BACH AKADEMIE AUSTRALIA is not only a highly polished ensemble directed with care and authority by Easton they also are setting standards for informed performance practice.

The Bach Akademie led by Madeleine Easton, presented a most considered, thoughtful and structured concert full of exquisite, multi layered music delighting the senses.

J.S. Bach's work as a teacher and mentor is spot lit in Bach Akademie Australia's season opening concert for 2024.

If Bach was a bridegroom offering us joy and hope then Bach Akademie Australia could be said to open up a perfectly prepared hall in which his music is brought passionately to life.

Bach Akademie Australia has truly marked the conclusion of a remarkable year of early music-making with a series of three outstanding concerts, each set in a breathtaking venue and featuring the talents of 21 instrumentalists and 16 singers.

The work was expertly pulled off by the performers, accompanied by a smaller chamber group.

I walked out two hours later feeling informed, transformed and most of all spiritually uplifted, just as Bach intended.

All the stops were pulled out for the concert with 16 top-notch singers and 22 musicians on stage, all conducted with energy, precision and a keen sense of enjoyment by Easton.

The crowning glory of the concert with a splendid account of one of Bach’s most mature and popular cantatas, the brilliantly constructed Wachet auf BWV 140.

It features creative harmonisations of the underlying chorale and meandering Buxtehude-style flights of fancy that remind one of the following remonstrance against Bach’s novel approach to liturgical music as a young and inventive organist.

This sort of music is not common fare. Every moment in each sonata and partita was given its opportunity to sing. In the parts one can glimpse the whole, as though in a fractal. Hence the title – A Universe of One.

Easton provides an opportunity for those who may have missed this initial performance to experience one of Bach’s most iconic compositions by one of Australia’s finest practitioners. Get there if you can.

And it has been a gift, too, to her audience to have been able to share her survey of these “wondrous” works which express the entirety of the human condition.

Something extraordinary happened in Sydney this weekend. Under the rough sandstone blocks of a small church in Paddington, virtuoso violinist Madeleine Easton conquered one of the behemoths of the solo violin repertoire.

The ensemble layers were expertly intertwined, with gestures nicely on point as the group voice and its constituent tone colours travelled brightly through the church acoustic.

Audiences were privileged to attend either in person or online this latest magnificent concert by the Bach Akademie.

“Bach Akademie Australia's Easter presentation sets a new measure of excellence for baroque vocal performance.”

“The Akademie is to be commended for its consistently outstanding concert programs. There is no sign of cost-cutting; instead, the audience is treated to detailed information on the history of each piece, as well as the German text to each piece alongside its English translation.”

“I was witness to talent that gave me more than goosebumps. Clearly there is years and years of practice and dedication.”

“I for one have discovered a new way to celebrate the Easter story and experience. Unforgettable and enlightening.”

Musical director Madeleine Easton has put together a group that excels and we, the audience, are so fortunate.

As usual, the Bach Akademie did not disappoint. This was in all respects a world-class performance. Easton and the ensemble clearly invested a lot of thought into it, and it was a fitting way to end their spectacular 2022 season.

This concert’s joy, grace and fluid performance style of the chosen works thrilled the audience over and over with audible gasping reactions.

This spectacular two-part concert – the Akademie’s Angel Place debut, which will go down for this reviewer as one of the highlights of the 2022 season.

It was an evening of outstanding music-making, marking the debut of the ensemble at Sydney’s City Recital Hall, leaving me with the unenviable task of translating this sublime experience into words. The concert was one of the best in programming and performance by the BAA that I have attended, warmly endorsed by the audience.

The program for this concert was neatly arranged to show the influence on Bach of a musical tradition that extended into the early Baroque and to places Bach never himself saw – beyond the Germanic states. The deep reverence Bach paid to his musical ancestors is well known. The Bach Akademie did well in showing that that reverence was not in vain, and in contextualising a genius often presented to modern audiences as though it emerged from a vacuum.

This was an intelligent and entertaining line-up from an expert performer well-versed her specialist repertoire, proving yet again that there is always something new in the old.

Nothing can be more satisfying on an evening out than a sublime piece of music. When all the notes, melody, harmony, tone and chords line up in a way that “rings” out in high resonance, it is guaranteed to heal the body, mind and spirit.

Nature or nurture? The elite Bach group explores the shaping of the musical genius in a program including works by his contemporaries and a superb performance by countertenor Russell Harcourt.