Next year’s eclectic program - which includes a new work for electric violin and strings from US composer Samuel Adams and a reworking of Vivaldi’s Four Seasons with additional music from the UK’s darling of electronic music, Anna Meredith - will build on the success of this year’s Indies and Idols concerts.

“We feel quite emboldened by the success of Indies and Idols, which was a pretty radical program,” said Tognetti. “It looked pretty obtuse on paper and hard to grasp but people really liked it. It means we have a bit more credit in the ‘trust bank’.”

Meredith’s composition involves inserting eight of her own short movements into Vivaldi’s familiar work.

“I didn’t want to do the Four Seasons again but when I first heard it, I thought it was worth having another crack with a different view,” said Tognetti. “These interstitial compositions are right in line with the kind of music I’m interested in."

The theme will continue with a new electric violin concerto yet to be written for Tognetti by Samuel Adams.

"I'll be very interested to see what Sam comes up with,” said Tognetti.

More conventional performances in May and June will feature celebrated Australian tenor Stuart Skelton teaming up with Dutch mezzo-soprano Christianne Stotijn for a performance of Mahler’s Das Lied von der Erde in the Schoenberg arrangement.

Next year also marks the 250th anniversary of the birth of Beethoven, which the ACO will acknowledge with a rare chance to hear together the first three of the master’s symphonies.

"Number 1 is certainly one of my favourite symphonies,” says Tognetti. “I love its humour and Haydn-esque wit. And we've never performed Number 2, so it will be fun learning that.”