What a night to remember: the world premiere of a heartrending new song cycle The Last Thing by Australian composer James Ledger, and a volcanic account of Beethoven’s last symphony under the baton of charismatic British conductor Alpesh Chauhan.

Beethoven also provided the overture, from his ballet music for The Creatures of Prometheus. After an uneven start, Chauhan and WASO quickly settled in, driving the music towards its triumphant conclusion.

Alpesh Chauhan conducts the West Australian Symphony Orchestra, Perth Concert Hall, 2024. Photo © Daniel James Grant

Poignantly, the ballet’s themes of creating life from fire and clay could in the context of this concert be seen as as a counterpoint to the themes of death in Irish poet and playwright Paula Meehan’s three poems as set by Ledger.

According to Ledger’s program note, the title song, The Last Thing, “describes the demise of a father and the last thing he utters”; the second song, Mother, “is a fierce and and spiteful take on a poisoned relationship between child and deceased mother”; and the third song, Child Burial, he found to be “an incredibly difficult read due to the subject matter, yet...