Concert Hall, Sydney Opera House
August 13, 2014

With his gift for smart, thinking-man’s programming, tonight David Robertson proved once again what an asset he is for Sydneysiders wanting to have the head engaged as well as the heart. This bill of Strauss’s valedictory Four Last Songs, Brahms’ sunny Second Symphony and, the surprise of the night, a new work that manages to crazily reflect both was a rollercoaster of complementary musical moods.

German composer Detlev Glanert is considered by some a bit of a maverick. You’re never quite sure what he’s going to throw at you and his new SSO co-commission throws everything at you bar the kitchen sink. Frenesia is described as an “anti-Heldenleben”. Instead, in homage to Richard Strauss it aims to show off the late-Romantic symphony orchestra in its natural habitat.

Beginning with a grand gesture, as reminiscent of Der Rosenkavalier as much as it is of any hero’s life, it proceeds to send a musical electric charge through every section of the orchestra in a crazy high-energy tone poem. This was Strauss on speed, packed full of cheeky games and with an engaging, original, cinematic quality. Big, brash and very tonal, Glanert’s orchestrations oozed atmosphere, yet in...