PUTTING aside any notion of wish-washy romanticism, Renaud Capucon revealed a highly passionate affection for Bruch’s evergreen Violin Concerto No 1.

From the outset this was marked as a deeply committed performance, lavishly supported by the BSO under Kirill Karabits, where Capucon’s energy and resourcefulness attained a stormy lyricism.

A beautiful entry to the Adagio captured an innocently romantic quality through to the fervent orchestral climax and beyond.

The finale, bold, unfettered and delivered with boundless virtuosity, was pure joie-de-vivre.

The 50th anniversary of Martinu’s death was marked by a performance of The Frescoes of Piero della Francesca.

This stunningly powerful, profoundly searching perception is rhythmically demanding in which the strings are given their head.

Karabits’ direction centred upon the more astringent sonorities, the rippling Adagio and sheer forcefulness of the finale.

Taking the first movement of Sibelius’ Symphony No 2 at a sparkling pace and with a keen ear for orchestral timbre, Karabits seemed to be on course for a winner.

The pregnant pauses running through the second movement held an ominous drama with Karabits working on the score’s dynamics to devastating, if disturbing, effect.

By the third it all began to appear rather self-consciously engineered; leaning on significant phrases and sounds.

The BSO nevertheless played his tune magnificently.