From festive frolics to furtive fear, the range of emotions ran high in Matthew Wood’s programme.

The emphasis of conviviality in Brahms’ Academic Festival Overture was joyously expressed with a good deal of soft-toned gracefulness.

Juho Pohjonen’s account of Beethoven’s Piano Concerto No.1 fully merited the massive applause.

Eliciting all the bravura of Beethoven ventilated with the spirit of Mozart, the first movement and its cadenza’s cascading brilliance were utterly delightful.

The Largo’s placid introspection proved as beguiling as the orchestral accompaniment, the finale’s exuberant vitality bringing fresh appreciation to all its felicities.

It is difficult to grasp how Shostakovich managed to pull the wool over the Soviet authorities’ ears at the premiere of his Fifth Symphony. Here Wood has just given THE performance of his burgeoning career, exposing all the desolation and private anguish of Stalin’s citizens.

The overt character of the Allegretto with its brilliant solos was totally convincing, and at the very heart the Largo; its hushed flow of harrowing harmonies and haunting wind solos indicated that Wood had this marked out, ramping up the superbly homogenous string sections to breaking point and near silence.

Like missiles, the finale’s jubilation soared and amidst rejoicing percussion and brass, high monotone violins suggested gleaming rifle barrels provocatively aimed.