Anton Bruckner’s symphonies are often admired for their cathedral-like “architecture”, but for the listener (and I’m sure the performer) they are more like mountains – vast and often majestic, and sometimes with a surprise hidden ridge which needs to be negotiated before getting to the top.

And none of the 10, if we include the Symphony No. 0, has a finer view from the summit than the Seventh with its brassy crescendo at the end of the opening movement reaching new highs; its beautiful Schubertian interplay between violins and cellos in the Adagio; the thrilling ride with blazing trumpets, timpani and galloping basses of the Scherzo and the bracing great unison passages of the Finale.

Sydney Symphony Orchestra. Photo © Craig Abercrombie

Any performance of this work is a gala event, and there have been several by Sydney Symphony Orchestra over the years – most recently under Principal Guest Conductor Sir Donald Runnicles in 2019 – and Sir Simon Rattle included it in his farewell tour with the London Symphony Orchestra here two years ago. This season it was the turn of Dutch-Maltese conductor Lawrence Renes, who was last...