Concert Hall, Sydney Opera House
August 3, 2018

The centrepiece of this concert was the Australian premiere of Julian Anderson’s piano concerto The Imaginary Museum. Comprising six short movements, the quasi programmatic work clocks in at around 20 compelling minutes. A co-commission between BBC Radio 3, the Bergen Philharmonic and the Sydney Symphony Orchestra, it takes its name from a text by the novelist and cultural politician André Malraux. In it, the Frenchman posits that it’s only in one’s own mind that it’s possible to picture a coherent collection of art, given its dispersal all over the world.

Written for the Scottish pianist Steven Osborne, The Imaginary Museum seemed a disparate work at times. This doesn’t necessarily hamper the concerto in any serious way, but I did feel the brevity of each movement meant drama wasn’t allowed to build as effectively as possible. However, it remains a seriously irresistible work that will reward repeat listenings, if only to listen more closely to the eclectic ways Anderson uses the harp.

The Imaginary Museum begins with the pianist seeming to test the acoustics of the hall with a few muted phrases, which soon gives way to a raucous traversal of the world. Most striking...