Like all Australian orchestras the West Australian Symphony Orchestra’s future plans were thrown into disarray by the coronavirus pandemic. Today they have announced a reprogrammed 2021 season, a modestly curtailed offering focusing on WASO musicians as soloists and with a blanket warning that things might change as presumably a combination of lack of flights, travel restrictions and quarantine requirements make Australia a tough proposition for overseas artists. Nevertheless, considering the circumstances it’s a bold program with plenty of original items among the popular favourites and with nearly as many women conductors as men, a visible commitment to gender diversity.

WASO. All photos supplied

In an impressive sign of his ongoing commitment to the orchestra, Principal Conductor and Artistic Adviser Asher Fisch will return four times for multiple events in March, June and August and December. His first visit will see him conducting Elgar’s Enigma Variations, Rachmaninov’s Piano Concerto No 2 with soloist Konstantin Shamray, and Olivia Davies’ new work, Stratus.

In other programs he will treat WA audiences to 20th-century masterpieces like Gershwin’s An American in Paris,...