Two decades ago German counter tenor Andreas Scholl made his Sydney debut singing with the Australian Brandenburg Orchestra. He was already a star, known for the muscular purity of his voice, the dramatic intensity of his performances and his easy and open stage manner.

Twenty-one years later, little has changed. At 56, and after a lifetime of care and musical maintenance, his unmistakable tone and security across the range is still there, and the wonderful acoustic of the ACO’s state-of-the-art Sydney concert hall The Neilson was the perfect setting for this unusually intimate and stripped back annual appearance of the Australian World Orchestra with their eminent guest.

The first half of the program comprised three works showcasing Scholl’s undimmed talent – JS Bach’s cantata Vergnügte Ruh, belieben Seelenlust, Antonio Vivaldi’s introduction from Filice mæstræ Jerusalem and Arvo Pärt’s Ein Wallfahrtslied – with 15 AWO musicians led by violinist Madeleine Easton.

The gentle opening Aria of the cantata emphasised Scholl’s sweet tone, less boyish and innocent now than on his 1998 recording with Philippe Herreweghe, with Emma Black’s oboe d’amore echoing and wrapping around his lines irresistibly.

Crouching like a boxer and swaying before launching into the line, Scholl’s dramatic flair came to the fore in the following Recitative while the virtuosity of the second Aria – much more challenging with its meslismas and leaps across the range – didn’t trouble him, the long trills complemented by Nathan Cox’s chamber organ and Neal Peres Da Costa’s harpsichord.

The Vivaldi was a chilling, pin-dropping six or seven minutes, the orchestra’s stabbing pulse, beautifully delivered by Australia’s finest, and the vocal description of the world’s deathly shadow as Christ expires on the Cross leaving the audience profoundly moved.

Vivaldi’s Introduzione RV 638 was designed to lead into the Miserere and Pärt’s Pilgrim’s Song fulfilled that role with its monotonic vocal line – first low then high – set again restless strings. Scholl was able to instil an extraordinary range of emotions, nuance and drama using such limited resources.

Stretching over a restless 10 minutes the piece fades to such a whisper that the audience was unsure when to clap. Scholl put them at ease with a gorgeous encore, an aria from Bach’s Mass in B minor.

Andreas Scholl and Australian World Orchestra. Photo © Prudence Upton

The AWO’s Artistic Director Alexander Briger (in the audience rather than on the podium for this tour) lists the Gran Partita Serenade as one of his top five favourites of WA Mozart’s works and, after this performance with 13 of the country’s most talented wind players it is hard to disagree with him.

It’s no coincidence that movies or plays are the touchstones for some of his most popular works – Elvira Madigan for his Piano Concerto No. 20 and Amadeus for this wind band showstopper – as they reach people who would not normally listen to this kind of music. Whether its young lovers framed by the beautiful Swedish countryside, or F. Murray Abraham as an embittered and envious Salieri bemoaning a crude upstart’s transcendent genius, both images and music lodge themselves in the collective consciousness.

The oboe’s soaring note at the opening of the Serenade’s Adagio is the scene everyone remembers from Miloš Forman’s film version of Peter Shaffer’s stage play Amadeus, and Sydney Symphony Orchestra Associate Principal Shefali Pryor delivered it superbly before her SSO colleague Frank Celata’s clarinet took up the melody, reminding us that Mozart wrote the work for his friend, the clarinetist Anton Stadler.

Beautiful though this movement is, it is only one of seven in a work that covers a lot of ground over its 50 minutes – at times sizzling like a prefigurative swing band and featuring wonderful solo and interplay moments. The four French horns and two basset horns provide rich brassy heft for the paired oboes, clarinets and bassoons to work with and against.

So, although pared back this year, the AWO’s three-date tour provides plenty of Baroque glory and Classical pizzazz. And next season we are promised that normal service will resume with “two extraordinary symphonies, one landmark event” with a Mahlerfest. Stay tuned for details.

Australian World Orchestra presents Andreas Scholl and Grand Partitia on 26 October, Hanson Dyer Hall, Melbourne.