Highlights include Steven Isserlis, Nicole Car’s ACO debut, an arrangement of the Goldbergs plus four world premieres.

The Australian Chamber Orchestra has launched its 2018 season. Highlights include an arrangement of Brahms’ Sextet No 2 in G for string orchestra, which won the ACO a rave review in The Guardian when they played it in London earlier this year; a bold orchestral arrangement of Bach’s Goldberg Variations by French Canadian Bernard Labadie; the world premiere of four commissioned pieces of music by Missy Mazzoli, Samuel Adams, Elena Kats-Chernin and Cyrus Meurant; a concert tour with Australian soprano Nicole Car; the return of Steven Isserlis to play Shostakovich and a closing concert featuring Beethoven’s Fifth Symphony and his Violin Concerto in D.

Between November 2016 and March 2017, Richard Tognetti spent time in London as the Barbican Centre’s first Artist-in-Residence at Milton Court Concert Hall where he played in recital and with the Australian Chamber Orchestra. At the culmination of the residency, the ACO gave a concert which included a version of Brahms’ Second Sextet for string orchestra for which they were joined by young players from the Guildhall School...