Jessica Cottis led the Canberra Symphony Orchestra in a performance that celebrated the human spirit through this extraordinary accomplishment of willpower and achievement that is Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony.

Canberra Symphony Orchestra performs Beethoven 9, Llewellyn Hall. Photo © Aris Pixels Photography

The concert opened with Daughters of Elysium, a world premiere from Miriama Young, an Australian and Aotearoa/New Zealand composer and sound artist. This new work followed Young’s Kinds of Blue, which I reviewed in April 2023.

In front of an almost capacity audience, with our new Governor-General, Her Excellency the Honourable Ms. Sam Mostyn AC, in attendance, and several ambassadors from around the world, Young’s work, inspired by Beethoven’s Ninth and the idea of universal humanity, began with a heartbeat on the bass drum. The woodwinds soon joined in with an ethereal low melody, pizzicato strings on the beat filled in the bottom, then brass, and softly, the battery of percussion chimed in.

It built in dynamic and scale. It celebrated, soared, and maintained its structure for seven minutes — a fitting tribute and precursor to the Ninth. The composer, who was in the audience, took to the stage...