Founded just over two decades ago by a group of friends/musicians who wished to come together and play, the Mahler Chamber Orchestra has a rather unusual approach to music. Not only are its 60 or so members citizens of as many as 20 countries, there is an ideal balance of individual personality and ensemble playing within the orchestra’s sections. These seemingly disparate characteristics weld together to form a unique, concise and incredible chamber music-like clarity to their performances with the smoothest of strings, brass and wind sections that are expected from the top-flight European orchestras.

Mahler Chamber Orchestra in Helsinki in 2017. Photograph supplied

Similarly, much care has gone into the choice of repertoire for their two concerts at this year’s Adelaide Festival. Program Two – which was the first to be performed – featured Mozart’s final three symphonies. Programming them within a single concert is a generous and taxing choice for performers and audience alike. However any difficulties were soon erased by the quality of the playing, the placement of an interval after each of the three works and the great acoustics of Adelaide Town Hall. To hear all three symphonies live...