The program typically included arrangements and original material. With the ever-present William Hennessy directing, the orchestra delivered their trademark performance built on precision and technical surety.

The concert commenced with a string orchestra arrangement of four of Debussy’s preludes from the first book. The change in texture demonstrated how well Debussy knew his instrument, the piano. The playing was excellent with great warmth projected but the last piece “Minstrels’, with its colourful twists and turns, was probably the most effective arrangement.

The winds joined the strings for Mozart’s delightful piano concerto K453. The symphonic drama was well projected as orchestra and soloist worked seamlessly together. The contrasts between the cheerful outer movements and the highly dramatic slow movement, with its surprise harmonic shifts, were effectively portrayed. Collins handled Mozart’s cadenzas with ease.

The ensemble playing remained poised in the second piano work, the slow movement from Mendelssohn’s youthful piano concerto in Am. The greater freedoms of the more romantic style were explored thoroughly  while the technical demands at the piano were comfortably controlled.

The final work was Ludwig Van Beethoven’s first symphony in C major, opus 21, first performed in 1800. Even at this early stage Beethoven’s writing was starting to show glimpses of the seismic shift he would impose on western music.

The rhythmic energy of the short themes on which he could build a large work was clearly understood. The discipline of the classical style suits this orchestra as the four movements were delivered as one narrative.