As I stepped into the Federation Concert Hall on Friday night, I felt a surprising jolt of familiarity. I joined a community of concertgoers that had recovered – seemingly uncorrupted – from the city’s recent events. (Of course, I’m referring to Dark Mofo – in which the Tasmanian Symphony Orchestra performed ambient album Riceboy Sleeps in a moody and hazy hall; and a collection of its musicians presented songs of sin in the nearby Hobart Town Hall.)

Things were back to a leisurely normal, and the only noticeable difference was the number of empty seats (perhaps a few regulars had been psychologically wiped out for a week or two, after all). This TSO performance was named Rococo Variations, after Tchaikovsky’s work, which featured in the program. It was led by Spanish conductor Jaime Martín, who motioned the players through the program opener Le tombeau de Couperin by Ravel. It was simultaneously magical and unsentimental. While conducting, Martín looked as though he were expressing the stroke of every instrument and every phrase; even the silence at the ends of movements. He was an astounding visual communicator. The consequence was particularly precise playing from the orchestra, and the work itself...