This concert presented yet another original take, by WASO Principal Conductor and Artistic Adviser Asher Fisch, on the overture-concerto-symphony format. For if Rossini’s Overture to The Thieving Magpie was a no-brainer curtain-raiser, the world premiere of a new flute concerto by Lachlan Skipworth and a quasi-symphony comprising selections from Wagner’s Der Ring des Nibelungen posed potential risks.

Or not. Fisch’s and flute soloist Andrew Nicholson’s profound artistry is well-known. Ditto WA composer Skipworth’s increasing mastery of orchestration and fluency in a more directly melodic and diatonic language. Finally, Fisch’s long and successful experience conducting Wagner operas guarantees no mere bleeding chunks but a glorious, unified whole.

Asher Fisch conducts the West Australian Symphony Orchestra. Photo © Daniel Grant

I don’t know what it’s like to perform Rossini’s Overture to La gazza ladra but surely it’s as much fun to play as it is to listen to. Fisch and WASO threw everything at it, the prominent percussion of the opening and the subsequent Rossini crescendos, as famous and thrilling as Mannheim steamrollers, making for a hugely entertaining performance.

While the stage was being set for the Skipworth, Fisch indulged his younger journalist...