This was one of those occasions when the combination of repertoire choices, committed performers and an eager capacity audience make for a totally exhilarating experience.

All the works on this program favour orchestral colour and brilliance. Opening with an all-too-brief selection from de Falla’s The Three-Cornered Hat ballet, conductor Pablo González ensures that the excitement and languor of those bold Spanish rhythms and sensual melodies register fully. The TSO, especially brass and percussion, clearly relish the opportunity to play relatively unfamiliar music for this ensemble.

Alexander Gavrylyuk. Photo supplied

Rachmaninov’s Rhapsody on a Theme of Paganini, his last work for piano and orchestra, was composed in 1934 at his villa in Switzerland. Ukrainian-born pianist Alexander Gavrylyuk, a regular visitor to Hobart, has that combination of virtuosity allied to a poetic instinct required to master the demands of the piece. Both he and the orchestra, under precise direction from González, revel in the constantly varying moods and tempi.

Gavrylyuk does not overromanticise the great 18th variation, maintaining the pulse but bringing out the strength of the great tune. The final variations have a memorable power and momentum that sweeps the listener forward to...