When Frank Bridge took on the 14-year-old Benjamin Britten as his pupil, the budding composer was already producing some impressive works, among which was an Elegy for Strings – he stipulated 68 of them to be precise. It was never performed in his lifetime and only received its premiere in 2013 at the London Proms as part of his centenary.

Richard Tognetti and the 17 strings of the Australian Chamber Orchestra gave it its first outing before an Australian audience at the start of their latest tour, and already we get glimpses of great things to come in among the lush Elgarian overlay. Restless and urgent rather than elegiac, it has some interesting twists and turns – a little fugue here, a pastoral episode there – and made for a great opener to this program of one adolescent and one mature work by Britten and his great hero Mozart.

Mozart’s Sinfonia Concertante, Australian Chamber Orchestra, 2022. Photo © Nic Walker

The main work of the evening was Mozart’s Sinfonia Concertante, which gave the ACO’s newest member, Principal Viola Stefanie Farrands, a place in the spotlight. The 33-year-old, who joined the...