★★★★☆ Energised readings see the romantic rub shoulders with the radical.

Perth Concert Hall
August 19, 2016

Music spanning 175 years was the substantial ask of this highly enjoyable programme, one which gave West Australian Symphony Orchestra Principal Conductor Asher Fisch the chance to show off his band’s swanky sound in his beloved German Romantic repertoire, as well as giving the ensemble a showcase for individual talents in a pair of highly contrasting concertos.

Perhaps the best example of where WASO is at right now came in the opener, Schubert’s still relatively rarely played Fourth Symphony. The warm solidity to the string sound was immediately apparent in a work where the still only 19-year-old Schubert relies on modest forces with little in the way of martial brass or percussive effect. A virtue of Fisch’s estimable focus on balancing his orchestra is that even when the serried ranks of violins, violas, cellos and basses are playing, a solo flute can still be heard – and let me assure you, that is not the case with every symphony orchestra.

The strings themselves are beautifully graded so that every contrapuntal gesture is laid bare, while Fisch himself is a paragon of expressive clarity. There’s...