For its final outing of 2015, Melbourne Symphony Orchestra offered a special event, unified by a single purpose but built out of series of curious combinations. Strident ecological activism rubbed shoulders with heart-warming philanthropy; rich, syrupy romanticism went toe-to-toe with fleet-footed jazz; the ancient past reached out beyond the present and into a rose-tinted future. The unifying impetus knitting together these disparate strands was the life and work of one man: composer and pianist Allan Zavod.

All at once a showcase, a tribute and an opportunity to curate, the world premiere of Zavod’s The Environmental Symphony, took top billing. This ambitious piece, featuring a poetic narration written by eminent neuroscientist Alan Finkle, delivered here by Aussie acting great Jack Thompson, is a patchwork of aesthetic influences. Flavours of American minimalism, the harmonically sumptuous lyricism of the early 20th-century Romantic composers, and a musical theatre style of jazz-rock swagger all happily percolate through the effervescent textures of this five movement work.

While the vernacular of the music is undeniably easy to access, Zavod holds no quarter with the technical pressures of this piece. Its dense orchestration is chock full of instrumental challenges and finickety balance issues,...