Some conductors work with quiet understatement, others flamboyantly.
Roberto Abbado belongs unashamedly to the second category. Whirling arms, convulsive leaps and ferocious lunges marked his direction of the Symphonie fantastique of Berlioz. If the musical response of the Sydney Symphony Orchestra had been anything less than sensational, listeners might have equated his signalling with that of an overexcited record collector gesticulating in front of his sound system. But what counts in any inter-pretative relationship between conductor and orchestra is the quality and character of the resulting sound. This was exceptionally vivid and cohesive, releasing just that kind of additional thrust and definition that made sense of Abbado's extravagance.