And three more years of Principal Conductor Asher Fisch is the icing on the cake.

Anyone who has had the pleasure of chatting to Asher Fisch over the past two years of his tenure as Principal Conductor of the West Australian Symphony Orchestra will know that he’s a man with a plan. His avowed intent: to boldly mould his Antipodean band into the finest Germanic symphony orchestra this side of the former Berlin Wall. This time in 2013, I recall a perfectly decent Brahms Three from WASO and their new-in-post Israeli maestro. Two weeks ago I heard world-class Brahms, the like of which would stand comparison with any world orchestra today. Someone is clearly doing something right.

“Playing the Beethoven cycle and now the Brahms cycle is doing exactly what I wanted it to do,” says a relaxed Fisch over lunch in a Perth restaurant, referring to last years two week festival of Beethoven and the current fortnight’s homage to his successor Johannes Brahms. “Everything is much easier. We’re developing a language, which is a dream for...