★★★★★ A perfect example of the level of musicianship of which this orchestra is truly capable.

Adelaide Festival Theatre
February 13, 2016

February and March have been traditionally praised for the quality and quantity of live music programming here in Adelaide; however the past few years have seen a laying off a musical content during the Festival as such, leaving it to the likes of such local groups as the Australian String Quartet and the Adelaide Symphony to take up the slack. And their first concert for 2016 under the more than capable baton of incoming Chief Conductor Nicholas Carter was a perfect example of the level of musicianship of which this orchestra is truly capable.

In a more than generous programme which featured both Beethoven’s much loved Violin Concerto as well as a concert performance of the central Act One from Richard Wagner’s Die Walkure – perhaps the most representative and therefore generous introduction that we could have to the sixteen-hour cycle of operas known as the Ring of the Nibelungen.

Of course the orchestra is well attuned with both of these choices – having played them with the likes of Kennedy and others in recent years (the Beethoven) and...