Lonely notes from the contrabass clarinet opened Cameron Lam’s Yggdrasil: The World Tree, a brand new concerto for the instrument and wind symphony, and one of two world premiere’s on the Sydney Conservatorium of Music Wind Symphony’s programme entitled Of Nature and Humanity. The instrument’s timbre, particularly in its high register, is almost saxophone-like, and soloist Susan Newsome’s pitch bending gave the quiet introduction a slightly smeary, jazzy quality up high, the lower register rumbling ominously. Subtle shadings of sound emerged from the body of the ensemble, high single voices growing seamlessly from the soloist like branches and leaves unfurling, becoming gradually thicker and lusher.

The concerto – one of two world premieres on the programme – was inspired by the Norse myth of Yggdrasil, the immense tree that connects the nine worlds of Norse cosmology. Channelling ideas of creation and destruction, Lam’s concerto – led by the SCM Wind Symphony’s conductor John Lynch – builds from the solemn opening, the tree’s birth, into a fantastic world in which mythological stories come to life. Rattatosk the squirrel scurries through piccolo and soprano saxophone, while the lower brass paint the tree’s mighty roots and the serpent that lives there. But the larger drama...