Wednesday night’s Sydney Symphony Orchestra concert, Mozart & Schubert, The Great Symphony, at the Sydney Town Hall marked the orchestra’s return after almost nine months.

The opening work, Mozart’s Symphony No 25 in G minor, was, perhaps, in “normal” times an unusual way to start the year, but at the moment it had a chilling appropriateness. One of only two of his symphonies in a minor key, it carries no context as to its creative origins but it marks a point where the young composer, still virtually a boy, hit his symphonic stride, its intensity and even vehemence miraculous for someone that age.

David Elton and the Sydney Symphony Orchestra performing at the Mozart and Schubert concert, Sydney Town Hall, 2022. Photo © Cassandra Hannagan

Was it inspired by Haydn’s “Sturm und Drang” (Storm and Stress) symphonies, or was it simply fashionable anxiety? Who knows, but the reduced forces of the Sydney Symphony (35 players), conducted by Umberto Clerici (the SSO’s former Principal Cello now forging a career as a conductor) restored my faith that conventional symphony orchestras really can still play this repertoire effectively (not that I’ve ever harboured...