★★★★☆ Andrew Haveron’s Sibelius favours poeticism over flamboyance.

Llewellyn Hall, ANU
August 19, 2015

In this concert the Canberra Symphony Orchestra again demonstrated the excellent progress that it has made in recent years under the talented Nicholas Milton – so talented, in fact, that he led the orchestra through three difficult works without the benefit of a score in front of him.

The highlight of the occasion was the performance of the Sibelius Violin Concerto by the 40-year-old British violinist Andrew Haveron, who is one of the concertmasters of the Sydney Symphony Orchestra – an  extraordinary piece of luck for that organisation. Haveron played the concerto with beautiful tone, great virtuosity and consummate musicianship. He emphasised the poetic elements in the work rather than the flamboyant. Nicholas Milton’s accompaniment was well-nigh perfect. He kept the orchestral balances well in check, even in the occasional eruptions from the percussion and the brass, of which there are many in this work. The result was that, at least in the first two movements, the work appeared to be of greater musical substance than the more famous symphonies; in the third movement, however, the performers could not disguise the lower level of the quality of...