The Adelaide Symphony Orchestra has topped composer and lecturer Ian Whitney’s annual analysis of Australian content in the announced seasons of the country’s Major Performing Arts funded orchestras. The ASO has set the highest record, at 15.9 percent of its advertised season, since Whitney began his count five years ago, and it is the only MPA orchestra in 2020 set to perform more Australian music than music by Beethoven.

Whitney’s count has become an annual event in the Australian music calendar, the composer giving an overview of the state of play for Australian music, along with, as he once put it, “the occasional snide observation”.

Such observations have become a touch more pointed for the 2020 season, which sees the orchestras celebrate the 250th anniversary of Beethoven’s birth.

Whitney described the Adelaide Symphony Orchestra’s jump in local content for next year as “a dramatic increase from their shared wooden spoon in 2019.”

The ASO tied in last place in 2019 with the West Australian Symphony Orchestra, each with two percent Australian content. For 2020, however, the ASO has a commanding lead, with more than double the Australian content of the next contender, the Melbourne...