The sound of relentless wind accompanies the opening credits of Mountain, the Australian Chamber Orchestra’s latest “cinematic and musical odyssey”. A light shimmer of strings from the orchestra adds to the aural haze as a screen above the Concert Hall stage shows a tiny figure, a single climber in an orange vest sticking to a vast, sheer rockface like an insect. Chilling piano notes drop from Tamara-Anna Cislowska’s fingers as the camera, up close now, looks down on the climber from above, taking in the vertiginous drop below him. The climber on-screen is Alex Honnold, renowned for his free solo ascents – dizzying climbs undertaken without the use of ropes or harnesses. Less than a fortnight ago, Honnold completed the first ever free solo ascent of Yosemite Valley’s El Capitan.

For the world premiere of Mountain, a collaboration between Richard Tognetti and director Jennifer Peedom (director of the 2015 film documentary Sherpa) – presented as part of Vivid Live and the Sydney Film Festival – the audience was an equal mix of classical music fans and mountain climbing enthusiasts, many drawn into the Opera House by the names of Peedom and climber/cinematographer Renan Ozturk.