Charismatic conductor of Wagner and the Romantics sets the bar high for his first year in Perth.

“The basis of Romantic German playing is Beethovenian playing”, enthuses Ascher Fisch, the energetic incoming Principal Conductor of the West Australian Symphony Orchestra. “You cannot do a Mozart cycle – it will not get you anywhere. If you do all of Beethoven’s symphonies you can set a style very quickly – and I have to work quickly because I’m not here for enough weeks in the year to work on a huge repertory.”

The Israeli-born conductor is in Perth for the launch of his first season, a program that centres on a complete Beethoven cycle spread over two weekends in August 2014. “We’re doing a lot of events around it because if you want people to hear all nine symphonies you also want them to learn something about them. The most striking thing you learn is what a journey this man made from the First Symphony to the Ninth. There’s the revolution of the Third, then the revolution of the Fifth, and the Sixth, which for me is also revolutionary with the introduction of nature, and then the introduction of voices in...