It's an occasion special enough to bring the CSO's chief conductor and artistic director, Nicholas Milton, back from his demanding overseas schedule to conduct the concert. The show will also feature the young New Zealand cellist Edward King in a performance of Dvorak's Cello Concerto. To begin the concert the orchestra will play Schubert's The Magic Harp Overture (Die Zauberharfe) a work now more commonly known as the Rosamunde Overture, a piece which leads the whole orchestra down a delightful, light, melodic path.

Milton is adamant that everyone - musicians and audience - love the Sibelius work that will feature in this concert: his great Symphony No. 5. "This symphony is the work in which Sibelius most successfully forged a new direction in terms of structure," he says, "and is one of the composer's most distinctive and unusual compositions."

The music of Sibelius is challenging to perform and this particular symphony is, according to the British conductor Simon Rattle, one of the most challenging in the orchestral repertoire.

Milton mentions the complex metric juxtapositions and balance issues arising from Sibelius' unique orchestral approaches to, in particular, woodwind writing, as some of the challenges in the performance of the work.

The Finnish government commissioned Sibelius to write this work in honour of his 50th birthday, a national holiday in Finland.

Many composers, particularly those from northern Europe, have been inspired by the majestic swan. Think of Saint-Saens' swan in his The Carnival of the Animals or of Tchaikovsky's Swan Lake. Sibelius was also captured by the grace and beauty of these creatures and an entry in his diary reads: "Today at 10 to 11 I saw 16 swans. One of my greatest experiences. Lord God, what beauty." The experience led him to write one of his most famous melodies which occurs in the symphony's third movement with a motif which begins with the horns and is then overlaid by the flutes and strings. Sibelius' Swan of Tuonela is, though, a very different piece described as "a dark and lyrical work".

The variety in Sibelius' large musical oeuvre is intriguing. As Milton says," Sibelius is a composer whose music always surprises. With a turn of phrase, an unexpected harmony shift, or for me most of all, an extraordinary rhythmic modulation and a transition, he takes us completely unexpectedly into a new tempo, a new style or a new emotional direction."

There will be more Sibelius from the CSO later this year. "I find all of his symphonies glorious, and above all, for me, the Violin Concerto that we will perform later this season, [August 19 & 20] is without doubt an enduring masterpiece," Milton says.

King turned heads when he competed in last year's Australian Cello Awards, winning, among other prizes, the CSO prize which included two performances as guest soloist with the orchestra this year. He recently had the thrill of being presented with a special prize by the master composer himself, Krzysztof Penderecki, claimed to be Poland's most famous living composer, at the International Penderecki Cello Competition in Krakow. King has not met Milton before and this concert will be his first orchestral performance in Australia.

What does he expect of his Australian debut?

"I just love to play with new musicians and for new audiences," he says. "There is always a collective mood/energy in the hall and I think this is what I thrive on as a performer – creating this atmosphere and then responding to it at the same time – bringing each audience member into my musical world."

And what is it that makes the Dvorak concerto so much loved?

"I think the cello is an instrument that speaks quite directly to audiences. Its range and tonal quality is very similar to that of the human voice, so this means it communicates on a very human level. The Dvorak is a piece that is very lyrical and passionate and there are many very virtuosic passages." Living overseas but feeling the pull of his own homeland, New Zealand, King also feels an empathy with Dvorak who wrote his concerto in America, far from the country of his birth.

Although King has worked in masterclasses with celebrated teachers such as Steven Isserlis and Ralph Kirshbaum he pays tribute to his long-term teachers James Tennant, Julius Berger and Wolfgang Emanuel Schmidt as having the greatest influence on his musical development. "I've gained many nuggets of information/advice from the diverse range of cellists that I've played for, but my teachers are the ones that have helped shape me into the musician I am," he says.

Canberra Symphony Orchestra's Jean Sibelius' Symphony No. 5, at Llewellyn Hall ANU School of Music on April 1 and April 2 at 7.30pm. Tickets: cso.org.au