Richard Strauss idolised Mozart – although “modernising” Idomeneo was, perhaps, a step too far! Strauss’s Oboe Concerto is a magical, late-in-life work, played here by VS Principal Michelle Feng. Christian Kluxen also shakes up a three-movement Symphony with a non-Mozartean minuet, and premieres a VS commission from Victoria’s own Anna Höstman.

Known for his ability to bring new audiences to the concert hall, the Calgary-born “disruptor-conductor” Daniel Bartholomew-Poyser leads a journey that touches on the beauty of nature and our need to care for our climate. The poetry of Wendy Jean MacLean is set by BC-based choral composer Nicholas Ryan Kelly in Earth, Beloved, a work that...