Sir Donald Runnicles first connected with Gustav Mahler’s music when he was selling programs at his home town Edinburgh’s Usher Hall and Leonard Bernstein came there to conduct the Sixth Symphony with the London Symphony Orchestra.

After that, as they say, it was all history as Sydney Symphony Orchestra’s Principal Guest Conductor has gone on to become one of the world’s leading exponents of the music that Bernstein did so much to bring to a wider audience in the middle of the last century.

Sir Donald Runnicles conducts the Sydney Symphony Orchestra. Photo © Jay Patel

Sydney audiences are lucky to have two great Mahlerians in Runnicles and SSO Chief Conductor Simone Young, who traditionally opens her seasons with one of the symphonies. So far we have had the Resurrection (No. 2), Titan (No. 1) and the mighty Fifth. Next year she leads the Third Symphony.

But the Fourth is the shortest, most joyful and arguably the most popular of them all and Runnicles concocted a memorable performance on the opening night of his four-concert engagement. It was also the first chance to hear Chinese soprano Ying Fang...