Melvyn Tan and the Australian Haydn Ensemble to perform in Canberra

Skye McIntosh, director of the Australian Haydn Ensemble, believes that keyboard artist Melvyn Tan is the perfect choice to play as soloist with the ensemble in their next Canberra concert at Albert Hall on June 29. "I invited Melvyn because he has such incredible experience with this repertoire and fortepianos. He is also such a sensitive player, something which I love," she says.

Tan will play on a copy of a Stein Viennese style piano as soloist in Mozart's Concerto for keyboard No. 18 K.456 in B- flat major.

McIntosh is meticulous in her creation of programs tailored to the talents of the AHE musicians and which also group together works that tell a story in an authentic atmosphere of the era in which they were composed. The work which will begin the program is Symphony Op.11 No. 2 in D major, the Australian premiere of a work completed in 1779 by the colourful and gifted African French composer Joseph Bologne, Chevalier de Saint-Georges. Born in Guadeloupe to a wealthy French planter and his African slave wife, Nanon, Joseph was taken to Paris and by the age of thirteen was enrolled in an academy which taught fencing and horsemanship. His outstanding skill as a fencer, equestrian and dancer made him a model for young men and helped to combat the colour prejudice which did, however, dog him throughout his life. In 1766 he was appointed an officer of the king's bodyguard and a chevalier. Remarkably, Joseph had also during this time become an accomplished violinist and by 1771 had been appointed as concertmaster of Francois Gossec's new orchestra. His first compositions were a set of six string quartets inspired by Joseph Haydn's earliest quartets. He also composed opera comiques, songs, violin concertos and sonatas. Following the tradition of other composers such as Haydn and Mozart of adapting a good work to later use, the symphony to be heard at this concert is identical with the Overture to Chevalier de Saint Georges' opera comique, L'Amant Anonyme.

McIntosh says, "I spend a lot of time thinking about the programs I put together and coming up with something that is not only interesting music – but I love bringing together works that have a relation to one another through the composers themselves." Another link between Chevalier de Saint Georges and Haydn was their involvement together in the commissioning of Haydn's Paris Symphonies, of which No 85, popularly known as 'La Reine' will be the final work on this program. The nickname of the symphony referred to Queen Marie Antoinette who was a close friend of Chevalier de Saint Georges. The second movement of the symphony has been described as a set of variations on the old French folk-song 'La gentile et jeune Lisette'.

Chevalier de Saint Georges had come to be known as "The Black Mozart" and here we have a further programming link when Tan plays the Mozart concerto between the two symphonies. While it is said that Mozart wrote this concerto for the Parisian pianist, Maria Theresa von Paradis, Tan thinks that Mozart himself played it. Tan says, "She was probably a student of his. He wrote many of these pieces for students or duchesses and people like that but he always played the first performance himself."

As a young musician Tan trained at the Yehudi Menuhin School and studied with the legendary Nadia Boulanger. "She was very knowledgeable about the language of any particular composer," he says. "I think what I learned most from her was a sense of listening to yourself and analysing what you were doing and how you were doing it. She always wanted to bring the absolute most from a page of music.. I had two and a half years with her from the age of 14 and I still remember the sessions in front of the whole school. I even once had to play the 'Moonlight Sonata' for Mrs. Thatcher." Although Tan had wanted to become a conductor he was told that he had to do an instrument. He had admired the harpsichord playing of Ruth Dyson and she actually became his teacher, "and that's really how I got into early music," he says. "My colleagues thought I was crazy because the harpsichord was not a fashionable instrument but I thought it was a very valid way to portray the music of Mozart and early Beethoven and I think this made the style of playing on the modern piano much better. Pianists now have a much clearer articulation."

Tan was told what instrument he would be playing for this concert so he chose the Mozart piano concerto. "It's in B flat – a terrible key," he says. "It's awkward for a keyboard and a very difficult key for wind instruments. The piece is really a wind serenade – such a fabulous concerto. The music just speaks for itself – a joyous work but with a slightly tragic slow movement. I tend to let the music speak for itself. I won't be imposing my personality on the music. I was always taught to serve the music."