What a warm and colourful program the West Australian Symphony Orchestra decided to treat us with on such a rainy, dreary Friday night. Latin Fiesta!, which celebrated composers and masterworks from Southern and Central America, brought a host of various new, previously unheard works to the audience with WASO’s signature poise and the energy of conductor Jessica Gethin.

Alberto Ginastera’s 1941 concert suite Estancia: Four Dances kicked off the evening with a bouncy – if slightly unsettled –opening sequence of jolly strings and lively percussion. Originally commissioned as a ballet by the American Ballet Caravan to depict the country life of the Argentinian gauchos (cowboys) and estancias (cattle ranches), the spirit of dance was alive and well in WASO’s performance, particularly in the syncopated, energetic Malambo of the fourth movement. Though the orchestra was at times prone to getting caught in the ‘sameness’ of some of the outer movement’s repetitive melodic material, the inner movements allowed individual lines to shine. The sweet flute and violin solos in the second movement (Danze del trigo, or Wheat Dance) were particularly lovely, as were the beautiful back-and-forth lines between the horns and the lower strings in the third movement (Las peones de hacienda,...