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Zubin Mehta conducts a trio of Strauss tone poems as the Australian World Orchestra arrives back in Sydney. 

Zubin Mehta, Siobhan Stagg and the players of the AWO were on top of their game in works by Webern, Debussy and Brahms, where the connections were as potent as the contrasts.

On their return to Sydney, the Australian World Orchestra under Riccardo Muti offer a subdued reading of Brahms’ Symphony no. 2 and a thrilling account of Tchaikovsky’s Symphony no. 4.

The idea of bringing together a country’s best players from all around the world to show off their combined might is all too familiar for football fans during any FIFA World Cup. It is far less common, indeed, almost unknown in classical music.

At the end of yesterday’s concert, there was a lot of hugging on stage. This was only to be expected. The high-quality music-making to which the audience had been treated was, for the players, a brief and unrepeatable experience, for some of them a nostalgic pilgrimage back to their homeland.