Canberra Symphony Orchestra: Llewellyn Series /02 Beethoven includes Schubert's Unfinished Symphony and Beethoven's Ninth

It's appropriate that this exciting concert should start with a fanfare: the well-known Cudmirrah Fanfare, which for a number of years was the official ABC Radio National fanfare and went on to win the Gold Medal at the New York Radio Festival in 1988. Composed by Nigel Westlake during, as he says, "my first professional writing gig as composer in residence with ABC Radio" it is about to have its world premiere at this concert in a newly reorchestrated form.

Westlake is the CSO's 2016 featured composer. Audiences have already heard his music for the film Babe and his Out of the Blue at concerts this year and another of his pieces, Shimmering Blue, will be on the November program.

"When Nicholas Milton mentioned he was considering programming Cudmirrah Fanfare as part of the Canberra Symphony's 2016 season," Westlake says, "I decided it was time to revisit the score and freshen it up ..."

Conductor and accompanist Stephen Mould, who is currently Chair of Opera Production and Senior Lecturer in Operatic Studies at the Sydney Conservatorium of Music, will direct this concert. Mould and Milton have a shared association with the Willoughby Symphony Orchestra. Mould says, "And when Nick asked me if I'd be interested in this project with the CSO I was delighted. It's my first time with them.

"The Cudmirrah Fanfare is a terrific piece. It's actually written for very large forces: four percussionists, quite a large brass section – a very full orchestration."

Mould is intrigued by Milton's interesting programming.

"His programs are always incredibly thoughtful," he says. "When I saw Beethoven's Ninth Symphony and Schubert's Unfinished Symphony on the same program I thought to myself, 'That's extraordinary. What's going on here?' But of course both works were written about the same time in the 1820s and each of these two pieces is a very individual take on the symphony – exploring the limits of possibilities. I think both composers were trying to push the boundaries as far as they could go."

Mould says that nobody quite knows why Schubert's symphony was left unfinished. Or was it actually left unfinished? There is a sketch of about 30 bars for a third movement which simply stops. Other people claim that Schubert did, in fact, compose a whole symphony but that it has been lost. Yet others are adamant that the work is perfect in two movements and that it's quite complete in itself.

"I tend to agree with this idea," Mould says. "There have been all sorts of competitions to complete the work. It really is a bit of an enigma."

After interval will come the mighty Beethoven Symphony No.9 in D Minor using all the forces of the orchestra, a choir made up of singers from the Canberra Choral Society and students from Radford College, Canberra Grammar and Canberra Girls' Grammar as well as four soloists from Opera Australia: soprano Emma Castelli, mezzo soprano Anna Dowsley, tenor Brad Cooper and baritone Andy Moran.

Brooke Hatton and Lizzie Troy from Radford's Year 12 told how excited they are to be taking part in this concert. "It's our first time with a professional orchestra and a unique opportunity to sing with instrumentalists of this calibre. It's an iconic work."

Mould says,"Beethoven had this vision of the whole world and the idea is to include young and old in a very all-inclusive occasion. There's a message of peace and brotherhood and the idea that even one's enemy is part of the world and we have to somehow all learn to live together." This was the piece chosen by Leonard Bernstein for the reunification concert on Christmas Day 1989 following the fall of the Berlin Wall.

It's impossible not to be moved by the Ode to Joy with the great shout, "Freude!" (Joy!) from the bass to introduce the great surge of combined voices in celebration.

Mould says, "Although I think it's rather a tragic work in a way, it's one of Beethoven's most unique works – his vision at the end, the very, very positive life-affirming vision, is something, I think, that came out of his isolation as his deafness increased. I've been studying the piece on and off for 30 years and I'm still not sure that I understand its full significance. It keeps changing every time I look at it – a bit like a moving target. Every time you think you've got it in your sight you find something new about it."