Composed in 1995 to showcase the extraordinary talents of the Australian percussion ensemble Synergy, Carl Vine’s Percussion Symphony unfolds over a single 25-minute span comprising a dramatic and heavily rhythmic opening, a hushed and lyrical Adagio and a frenzied, accelerating Tarantella finale.

‘Its appeal is considerable and direct. The main body of its first section rides on energetic, syncopated dance-like rhythms, often with a Latin flavour. The middle, generally slower, section revolves around a core of instrumental dissension . . . Vine's invention is brilliantly appropriate for his purposes.’
The Sydney Morning Herald (Roger Covell), 20 March 1995