The anticipation at last night’s inaugural Sydney Symphony concert at the Sydney Town Hall was palpable: it was the orchestra’s first ‘real’ concert for almost a year. The green shoots which appeared at the start of a (hopefully) more normal concert year were verdant, encouraging and beautiful. Chief Conductor Designate Simone Young presided over a program of Tchaikovsky’s Violin Concerto and Dvořák’s ‘New World’ Symphony. Mask wearing was compulsory but there was little social distancing.

Simone Young and the Sydney Symphony Orchestra. Photo © Nic Walker

The soloist in the Tchaikovsky was Daniel Röhn, a last minute replacement for Ray Chen. I was fascinated to read that both his (Röhn’s) father and grandfather were concertmasters of the Berlin Philharmonic during the Furtwängler years. After the “Once upon a time…” opening, Röhn adopted a slow release approach with distinctly tempered bravura but the sprays of demi-semi quavers were soon rocketing forth like sparks in passage work. At this point I should mention the contribution of the SSO’s wind section, which sounded particularly piquant throughout, especially in exquisitely inflected the flute/clarinet conversation during the first movement and, even more,...