So began the pre-concert talk by Maestro David Robertson, the new Chief Conductor and Artistic Director of the Sydney Symphony Orchestra.

Thus began 5 years of applause.

A fantastic concert was performed by a top of form SSO along with the Australian String Quartet.

The program consisted of:

Igor Stavinsky – Symphony in Three Movements

John Adams – Absolute Jest for string quartet and orchestra

and Ludwig van Beethoven – Symphony No.7 in A, op.92

The music drew from modernism, classicism, neo-classicism and minimalism with the binding themes being rhythm and Beethoven. The Adams in particular combined the the challenging idea of a concerto for string quartet with seamless sampling of rhythmic excepts from the late Beethoven quartets, often with several themes being played in parallel, but in a way that reached beyond sampling. For a sense of the latter listen to the LSO and the St Lawrence String Quartet play Absolute Jest at the Barbican in January 2013.

This was a fantastic beginning for the new conductor and I and many others are looking forward to the next 5 years. Welcome David Robertson @sydsymph