The Age, 1st April 2008 - page 17: 

Under conductor Benjamin Northey, the Australia Pro Arte collection of this city’s brighter young chamber players produced a well-finished, urbane program to open their account for 2008.  With the usual willing string corps that might have gained some woodwind/brass balancing power from an extra desk or two of violins, the APA gave clean delineation to Haydn’s Symphony No. 90 in C, which is seldom heard in live performance but has the distinction of a deceptive finale in which matters appear to reach a conclusion but in fact resume after a four-bar rest.

Once again, the ensemble values proved impressively high, with only a few glitches from the well-exercised wind and a feisty contribution from the low string sections.  To the credit of Northey and artistic director William Hennessy, these samples of an unknown Haydn are enriching APA supporters’ musical experiences considerably, which is doubly welcome after the touted but unachieved promise of a Haydn renaissance during the Markus Stenz years with the Melbourne Symphony Orchestra.

Frank Martin’s Polyptyque of 1973 presents six musical images of Christ’s Passion using a soaring and exposed violin solo above a pair of small string orchestras.  APA regular Michael Brooks-Reid gave a penetrating and passionate account of this substantial sequence of meditations, written in an unusually approachable language for the often eclectic Swiss composer, the string bodies reflecting the solo line’s path from anguish to ecstasy with keen concentration.

The afternoon’s emphasis fell heavily on the one post-interval work, Mozart’s Piano Concerto in C minor, with Amir Farid as soloist.  This more-than-gifted young musician appeared in last year’s series with the earlier A Major Concerto, making a persuasive case for its rarely heard pleasures; the later K. 491 asks a good deal more of its executants, not least in balancing the large wind group.

From the initial keyboard statement on, Farid displayed an enviable control, both in handling the restless passage work of the first movement and the composer’s taxing fondness for repeated notes in this section’s startling melodic content.

One of the more notable aspects of this interpretation emerged in Farid’s self-control, especially in the muffled drive in operation across his opening pages.  Later, the E flat Larghetto came over as the intended benign relief between two grave constructs, the meltingly simple lyric arch informed by a simplicity of address from the pianist that found elegant balance from the mirroring wind ensemble.

But if you were looking for indications of Farid’s rapidly developing mastery, it would be hard to go past his gripping reading of the finale’s variations.  In these opulently dour pages, you heard immaculate instances of insightful flair: evenness of touch, firmness without insistence, a responsive engagement with the movement’s phrasing contours.  In a well-populated field, this artist distinguishes himself for all the right reasons.

Clive O’Connell