Getting any full-length, large-scale work off the ground in Australia is akin to pushing a sizeable boulder up a hill. It’s a pretty remarkable achievement then that Sydney-based composer Andrew Schultz is approaching the premiere of his Fourth Symphony.

There’s about a decade between each of Schultz’s symphonic works, which premiered in 1998, 2008 and 2013 respectively. His Fourth Symphony, which is about to see its world premiere with the West Australian Symphony Orchestra, arrives more or less on schedule.

“Ten years is a lot of time in anyone’s life, and I would say I have changed a bit,” the composer says. “My musical approach has changed.”

Andrew Schultz

Andrew Schultz. Photo supplied

WASO premiered Schultz’s Bassoon Concerto in 2023, with Principal Bassoon Jane Kircher-Lindner in the hot seat (Limelight reviewer Will Yeoman called it an “attractive and original work” in a four-and-a-half star writeup); the orchestra was keen to work with Schultz again, and immediately green-lit Schultz’s proposal for a Fourth Symphony. Last year, he “sat down straight away and wrote it”.

“One of the things about a symphony is it needs to be a complete statement of some sort,”...