There is a special thrill that comes from hearing a top flight youth orchestra performing big repertoire pieces.

I recall with great pleasure the Hobart AISOI concerts in the decade ending December 2016 where up to 120 of the country’s best young musicians gathered annually in Hobart to play and give Tasmanian premieres at the City Hall of major works by the likes of Mahler, Bruckner, Richard Strauss and Stravinsky.

This sense of highly skilled young musicians discovering for the first time some of the repertoire’s masterworks was present in spades in this Federation Hall concert by the Australian Youth Orchestra.

AYO in rehearsal, Federation Hall, Hobart.

With a full strength of 84 players, the AYO immediately dazzled in the quality and depth of string tone in Ravel’s La Valse, starting with that wonderful double bass section.

Conductor Alexandre Bloch used a very flexible approach in regard to tempi with expressively shaped phrasing throughout. In the powerfully wrought climaxes, brass and percussion burst upon the listener with enormous force; the woodwinds were always piquant and beautifully blended.

Karol Szymanowski’s Violin Concerto No. 2, Op. 61 was his last composition. It is in one movement...