In this penultimate concert for WASO before the Perth Concert Hall shuts down for much-needed repairs and refurbishments, German/Korean violinist Clara-Jumi Kang (her WASO debut) and guest conductor Vasily Petrenko (a returning artist) brought together two Brahms masterworks in very convincing fashion indeed.

Dedicated to the great Hungarian composer and violinist Joseph Joachim, Brahms’ Violin Concerto in D major, Op. 77 certainly had its detractors right from its first performance, by Joachim, in 1879 but has since gone on to be a staple of the repertoire.

By contrast, Brahms’ Symphony No. 2 in D major, Op. 73, which premiered two years before, was, perhaps because of its generally sunnier, “pastoral” nature, was an instant hit.

Clara Jumi-Kang and the West Australian Symphony Orchestra: Brahms’ Splendour. Photo © Rebecca Maunsell

Not just Petrenko and WASO but Kang herself, performing on a Thunis Stradivarius from 1702,  brought the symphonic nature of the Violin Concerto to the fore with her warm, penetrating and variegated tone, expressive phrasing and scrupulously tuned double and multiple stopping.

Most obviously in the first movement cadenza, to be sure, but evident throughout, from the expansive dialogics of the Allegro non troppo...