The Adelaide Summer Orchestra is a unique ensemble, comprising mainly amateur musicians and assembling once a year to give a concert to raise funds for charity. The performers also pay to perform – $60 each to cover the Orchestra’s operating costs – so that all the proceeds of the ticket sales can flow to that year’s selected recipient.

The Orchestra takes on major symphonic works and this year’s challenging program was no exception. And while its playing might not have quite the refinement of the Adelaide Symphony Orchestra, it produced an involving performance under eminent conductor Nicholas Braithwaite, a celebrated former conductor of the ASO among many others. This year’s program featured the Korngold Violin Concerto with acclaimed Sydney Symphony Orchestra Concertmaster and former Brodsky Quartet first violinist Andrew Haveron as guest soloist.

Andrew Haveron and the Adelaide Summer Orchestra. Photo © Chris Reid

The concert program was thoughtfully selected, the three works forming a chronological sequence and all having a strong theatrical or cinematic connection. The program opened with Richard Strauss’s Macbeth Symphonic Tone Poem, Op. 23 (1886-1888), an early, innovative work and the composer’s first effort at a tone poem....