Beethoven’s famous student Carl Czerny once described his master’s playing as being marked by “enormous power, character, unprecedented bravura and velocity”.

Certainly, these qualities and more are present in Czech pianist Lukáš Vondráček’s own playing here – which augers well for the remaining two concerts completing this traversal by Vondráček and WASO under Principal Conductor Asher Fisch.

Indeed, before even a note is played, the atmosphere in Winthrop Hall is electric, as though we are about to set off on a rare journey of discovery together, retracing the artistic evolution of one of classical music’s titans.

Lukáš Vondráček and the West Australian Symphony Orchestra. Photo © Rebecca Mansell

The Creatures of Prometheus overture, in which Fisch draws a rich, clarion sonority from the orchestra as he navigates ambiguity and affirmation with equal panache, is thus the perfect opening.

A Mozartian spirit is present both in Beethoven’s Piano Concerto No. 1 in C major and Vondráček’s sparkling, supple reading. His years of collaboration with Fisch and WASO pay off here, too, the bold orchestral statements and virtuosic keyboard writing in the opening Allegro con...