This instalment of the TSO’s 6pm series emphasised the dark and the spooky. A capacity audience enjoyed a startlingly varied choice of works with host Will Newbery providing weirdly funny introductions that kept things bubbling along like a witch’s cauldron. There was also an hilarious moment of grim theatricality from an ‘audience’ member when confronted by the sound of the triad – the devil in music!

Conductor Benjamin Northey and his players brought out the brooding menace of the start of Mozart’s Don Giovanni Overture along with plenty of gusto in the ensuing allegro.

Sibelius’s forebodingly atmospheric The Swan of Tuonela was superbly done with an outstanding cor anglais solo from Dinah Woods and fine work by principal cellist Jonathan Békés.

Claire Edwardes. Photo courtesy Tasmanian Symphony Orchestra

Bernard Herrmann’s innovative string writing for Hitchcock’s 1960 thriller Psycho was represented by three key scenes from the movie. The sudden shock effect of those shrieking violin glissandos during the murder still makes a powerful impact to this day. The final chord of the Finale transitioned seamlessly into Iain Grandage’s concerto Dances with Devils.

This strikingly colourful work has become something of a party piece...