As Dvořák’s secretary was about to take his latest symphony to the conductor, the composer stopped him, grabbed the score, and scrawled the unforgettable subtitle From the New World. It sounds like a postcard home, and it is: a Czech composer reacting to the boundless vitality of nineteenth-century America.

The concert begins with a turbulent piece by Korngold, who, unbelievably, was just 14 when he composed it. Another brilliant young musician, New Zealand-born violinist Geneva Lewis, makes her Australasian debut with Barber’s autumnal concerto.