Federation Concert Hall, Hobart
December 9, 2017

Saturday-night Vaughan Williams wrapped up a strong 2017 season for the Tasmanian Symphony Orchestra. Without dwelling on achievements as obvious as the Helpmann Award win for its Tristan und Isolde, the TSO has hosted some outstanding events in idyllic Tasmanian venues – branching out into locations such as Willie Smith’s Apple Shed, and the Hobart Brewing Company’s Red Shed for micro-orchestra concerts known as Live Sessions. Through these intimate new performance experiences, we were introduced more personally to concertmaster Emma McGrath – now a delight to watch as our soloist in this starkly beautiful end to the year: The Lark Ascending.

I’d been eagerly awaiting this performance for months – as had hundreds of other Tasmanians who attended the booked-out Federation Concert Hall. I was seated in the balcony, overlooking a stripped-back TSO for the first work on the programme, Beethoven’s Symphony No 4.

In order to reach the titular Vaughan Williams, this symphony did seem a bit of an effort as it offered a relatively low-impact opening. The opening Adagio – Allegro vivace was slow to draw us in after kicking off with a long – and wavering – tone....