It’s intriguing when a guest conductor comes in and draws a sound from a familiar orchestra that you haven’t heard before. Organist, harpsichordist and conductor Masaaki Suzuki is one of the world’s leading Bach interpreters – he founded his famed period instrument ensemble Bach Collegium Japan almost 30 years ago – and in last night’s concert he coaxed a timbre from the Sydney Symphony Orchestra’s string section that could almost have been that of gut strings.

Haydn’s Symphony No 95, was the second performed of his 12 London Symphonies (which were written for his 1791 trips to London after the death of his employer Prince Nikolaus I of Esterházy and the succession of his less musically-inclined son Anton, which left the composer to pursue other career opportunities) and it is the least-often played of the set – the SSO last performed it in 1969.

Suzuki and the SSO, however, made a compelling argument for Haydn’s Symphony 95 taking a seat of honour alongside the likes of Clock, Miracle, Drumroll and Surprise. Conducting without baton, the Japanese maestro took the opening dramatic unison figure at a lively clip – it’s the only one of the London dozen to lack a slow introduction...