About to make her debut with the Sydney Symphony Orchestra (after a stellar introduction to Australian audiences in Melbourne), Spain’s María Dueñas, 23, is poised to play Bruch’s First Violin Concerto with the Sydney Symphony Orchestra. It’s a work she is deeply familiar with – and passionate about – having played it with some of the world’s leading orchestras and conductors including Zubin Mehta and Yannick Nézet-Séguin.

Limelight grabbed a few moments of her time to talk about her relationship with the work.

María Dueñas. Portrait © Felix Broede

What was your first encounter with the Bruch, and how has your relationship with it evolved as you’ve continued to perform it?

Playing the Bruch concerto for the first time as a teenager felt very special because I had always dreamed of one day playing the opening theme of the second movement, which for me was the most magical melody in violin repertoire.

The concerto is charged with a kind of operatic drama and the sense that you are confessing something profound with every phrase. Now it has evolved into more of a conversation. The music feels wiser, less about showing how much...