A violinist walks into a bank: 50 bold and extravagant years of the Australian Chamber Orchestra

‘We have what I like to describe as a lean forward audience … they want to learn’: Richard Tognetti, musician and Australian Chamber Orchestra artistic director of 35 years. Photograph: Simon Lekias

More than a quarter of a century has passed since the day a young violinist with the reputation of wunderkind (or enfant terrible) strode into the Commonwealth Bank of Australia’s executive offices in Martin Place and gave an impromptu display of his virtuosity with the opening bars of Paganini on a borrowed violin.

“Will you buy this for me?” Richard Tognetti asked an astonished David Murray, the then CEO of the bank.