James Ehnes excelled again, a fairly familiar habit with this happy violinist, in Tchaikovsky’s Violin Concerto.

Wonderfully mellifluous first violins set the orchestral standard and Ehnes entry inspired a magnificent performance. With Yan Pascal Tortelier building the orchestral tension leading to Ehnes’ cadenza full of light and shade and with pin point harmonics.

The Canzonetta was tender and wistfully muted against glorious woodwind playing and Ehnes’ finale had all the brilliance and bravura one could wish for. The encore, clearly announced, was a lovingly rounded account of the Largo from Bach’s Sonata No 3.

Romantic as the scenario is Prokofiev’s ballet Romeo and Juliet, in its orchestral guise, indulges in extremes of dynamic and expression on an epic scale where tension, terror and tear jerking are juxtaposed.

Tortelier’s direction coaxed out the spectacular in every episode and from every department, yet when romantic nuances were required they were tenderly executed. Humour in The Street Awakens and the Dance with Mandolins augmented the better known items.

Dreaming by the Fireside from Richard Strauss’s opera Intermezzo reaches a richly sonorous outpouring of personal romantic instance.

To see and hear the BSO is one of the greatest joys of artistic endeavour. If you missed the sight, the sound is on BBC Radio 3 on January 31.