Midsummer Dreams
Australian Romantic & Classical Orchestra
Conducted by Rachael Beesley
Released March 2025
In the Australian Romantic & Classical Orchestra (ARCO)’s fourth CD, the orchestra performs A Midsummer Night’s Dream Overture and Symphony No 3 by Mendelssohn, and Beethoven’s Symphony No 8.
The concert was recorded at a live performance in Sydney in August 2023, but the program was also performed at the Albert Hall in Canberra.
ARCO’s Operations and Communications manager (and double bass player) Rosemary Ponnekanti says the recording combines the generally upbeat but often overlooked Beethoven Symphony No 8 in F major with the more moody and romantic Mendelssohn ‘Scottish’ Symphony No 3 in A minor.
The orchestra, founded in 2012 by the late Richard Gill, comes together for three tours a year and is considered to be the forefront of historically informed performance.
Rosemary Ponnekanti says that while it generally performs works from the late 18th to early 20th century, it has been branching out into very recent music, such as on its 2024 Queensland tour when it premiered a new commission by composer Nicole Murphy.
The Midsummer Dreams CD comes with a booklet of notes about the three pieces as well as an essay about 19th century orchestral music by Geoffrey Burgess.