Andrew Haveron was nominated for a Helpmann Award for his performance with Sydney Symphony Orchestra of William Walton’s Violin Concerto in 2015, but he deserves to take out the gong with this reading of Benjamin Britten’s concerto seven years later.

The British-born virtuoso was rising through the ranks of international soloists when he was appointed Concertmaster of the SSO in 2013, following stints leading the BBC Symphony Orchestra and World Orchestra for Peace, among others, and eight years as first violin in the ground-breaking Brodsky Quartet, who incidentally will be visiting Sydney next year for three concerts in the Utzon Series.

Andrew Haveron and the Sydney Symphony Orchestra. Photo © Jay Patel.

Haveron was playing with a home ground advantage in a program dubbed “British Boldness” to round off the SSO’s 2022 season under the judicious baton of another Briton, James Judd, who is Musical Director Emeritus of New Zealand Symphony Orchestra.

However, the concert’s opener was boldly Australian, Paul Stanhope’s Ocean Planet,  commissioned for the SSO’s 50 Fanfares Project and intended as a...