This year marks the 200th anniversary of Beethoven’s ninth and final symphony, which is as good an excuse as any for conductor Jaime Martín and the MSO to take on all nine works over the next 10 days.

If Tuesday night’s opening performance of Symphonies 1 and 3 is anything to go by, Melbourne audiences are in for a treat.

Jaime Martín conducts the Melbourne Symphony Orchestra’s Beethoven Festival, Hamer Hall, 2024. Photo © Laura Manariti

Much has been said about Beethoven’s innovative genius, but seldom as entertainingly as by MSO librarian Luke Speedy-Hutton. His regular pre-concert talks are an unmissable feature of MSO performances for anyone wishing to value-add to their concert experience. With the aid of the grand piano in the lower floor foyer, he gave examples of Beethoven’s unorthodox theme development throughout the two symphonies – with key changes and variations of refrain – before retroactively making sense of them at the end.

Part of the MSO charter is to attract a wider audience and the pre-concert talks are an example of this, as are the Beethoven Jams for Juniors dotted throughout the festival, designed to introduce the very...