“Nigel Westlake wrote his new oboe concerto, Spirit of the Wild, after a trip with politician/environmentalist Bob Brown to Bathurst Harbour in the southwest Tasmanian wilderness. The solo oboe becomes the embodiment of that spirit and Sydney Symphony oboist Diana Doherty played it like an incarnation of an exotic woodland bird, a mercurial animal of alert and sometimes savage energy, and force of creation all in one. The work spanned long notes, haunting remoteness and awakening wonder in the first movement, driving rhythmic vitality in the second, soulfulness and cinematic ...