Sydney Symphony Orchestra proved itself to be a first-class interpreter of Dmitri Shostakovich’s symphonies under the stewardship of its then Chief Conductor Vladimir Ashkenazy in the last decade, and this latest performance with Principal Guest Conductor Sir Donald Runnicles confirms it.

The performance of the mighty Fifth Symphony was compelling from the celebrated opening in the cellos and basses, the translucent floating strings like lofty clouds, and the woodwinds – first flute, then oboe followed by clarinet and bassoon – each adding subtle splashes of colour.

Runnicles allowed it plenty of space but ensured that the momentum built as horns, piano and trumpets added their muscle as the menacing march, with trombones, tuba and percussion all came to the crashing climax, giving way to the lovely consoling melody in the violins with its gently rocking harp accompaniment.     

Sir Donald Runnicles conducts the SSO in Shostakovich’s Fifth Symhony. Photo © Craig Abercrombie/Sydney Symphony Orchestra

The work has remained popular since its premiere in 1937 put Shostakovich back in favour with the Stalinist elite after his opera, Lady Macbeth of Mtsensk, was condemned and taken off the stage.

The perky Allegretto second movement featured a nimble-fingered solo from Concertmaster Andrew Haveron, followed by some equally puckish flute from Emma Sholl, while you could hear a pin drop as the Largo, which is almost as long as the first movement and which had the audience in tears at its premiere, stretched over a vast snowy landscape.

The abrupt change of pace of the final movement, as it always does, brought the audience to its feet with its blazing D major ending which has been endlessly debated and analysed for coded anti-Soviet messages ever since Shostakovich wrote it.

Whatever the case, it made for a wonderful high point in a year which has been marking the 50th anniversary of the composer’s death.

Musicians of the SSO in Shostakovich’s Fifth Symhony. Photo © Craig Abercrombie/Sydney Symphony Orchestra

There were Shostakovich-like moments in British composer Anna Clyne’s This Midnight Hour, given its SSO premiere here, particularly the use of a piccolo over thundering basses and cellos. There’s a cinematic aspect to her writing, as well as a reverence for the greats including Beethoven, Debussy and Bartok, which always makes for a compelling and rewarding listening experience.

Over 12 minutes Clyne’s 2015 piece covers a lot of ground, inspired by two poems. Spanish writer Juan Ramón Jiménez likened music to “a naked woman running through the pure night!” This accounts for the panic-stricken chase explosion of double basses which starts the piece. There is also a French influence, from Charles Baudelaire’s Harmonie du soir when “every flower exhales perfume like a censer”.

In one highly melodic section Clyne has the viola section split with one half playing at written pitch with the others are a quarter-tone higher to imitate the sonority of a Parisian piano accordion.

Marc-André Hamelin. Portrait supplied

The concert also marked the much-anticipated Sydney debut of 64-year-old Canadian virtuoso Marc-André Hamelin, considered to be among the very best of the current generation of pianists, playing Beethoven’s ground-breaking Piano Concerto No. 4.

Hamelin’s technical brilliance, poise and poetic pianism made this an unforgettable performance. Collaborating together for the first time, conductor and soloist showed an uncanny empathy in a work which calls for stillness, cohesion and brilliance above and beyond the norm.

Hamelin is also a composer and has created his own cadenzas for the first four of Beethoven’s concertos. His cadenza for the mighty first movement was majestic and magical by turns, tapping into the work’s sense of floating serenity.

As Hamelin says: “The other concerti exposes the pianist, introduces the piano, but the fourth is on another plane. And I think spiritually it’s different.”

In the middle of the slow movement the peace is interrupted by a powerful trill and, a startling new idea, a quote from Dies Irae chant. This “Orpheus taming the Furies” moment was paid out in full by Hamelin, making the prospect of his survey of Beethoven’s Hammerklavier in his Monday night recital mouth-watering.

After a feather-light tinkling encore of his own composition Music Box, which gradually runs down to stillness, Hamelin joined the audience for the concert’s second half. Something I’ve not seen before and which to my mind marks him out as a special performer.

Marc-André Hamelin plays in Recital in the Sydney Opera House Concert Hall on 15 September.