David Robertson’s eclectic programme of new and old mixes Trifonov and Ibragimova with Dutoit and Ashkenazy.

Martha Argerich will make her long-overdue Australian debut next year as part of the Sydney Symphony Orchestra’s 2017 season. The Argentine musician heads an impressive list of soloists that includes fellow pianists Daniil Trifonov and Hélène Grimaud, plus the return of violinist Janine Jansen. Other highlights will include Swiss conductor Charles Dutoit, who celebrates a remarkable 40-year relationship with the orchestra, and who will direct a concert performance of Debussy’s Pélleas et Mélisande, a return visit from Vladimir Ashkenazy conducting two concerts of music by Dmitri Shostakovich, and Simone Young who will be in Sydney to conduct Bruckner’s Fifth Symphony.

^{Violinist Janine Jansen}

Catching up with Chief Conductor and Artistic Director David Robertson ahead of the season launch, he waxes lyrical about the SSO’s ability to change gears at will. “What’s amazing is the diversity you can get with the orchestra,” he says. “It’s a little bit like working with Cate Blanchett – there isn’t the part that she can’t do. That means that...