Something wonderful has been happening in the CBSO strings over recent months.
Imperceptibly and unannounced, there has been a development in confidence, lustre and athletic control which has led them to deliver unforgettable readings of major test-pieces by Strauss, Elgar and, on Tuesday, Vaughan Williams.
All this has been achieved despite (or perhaps thanks to the input of) a succession of guest leaders, and without the continued presence of music director Sakari Oramo, himself a violinist of immense repute.
On Tuesday Oramo presided over a VW Tallis Fantasia which was awesomely projected, eloquence proceeding from the subtle restraint of the players, delivering this evocative music with a measured, cathedral-like tread shaped by Oramo's perceptive feel for the work's hymnodic structure.
It's just a pity more physical space couldn't have been found between the two separated instrumental groups.
Moving on half a century, the CBSO revisited one of its early Feeney Trust successes, the magically lyrical Piano Concerto of Michael Tippett. Steven Osborne was the tireless, articulate soloist, bringing both 18th-century harpsichord filigree and sturdy Beethovenian power to his limpid, poetic reading, Oramo and his orchestra collaborating with delicacy and insight into this wonderful score.
But what followed was nothing short of miraculous: an account of the world's most hackneyed symphony - Beethoven's Fifth - which made me feel as though I were hearing this groundbreaking work for the first time.
Oramo's commanding manipulation of tempo, and his forward-looking, Sibelius-like dovetailing of the structure of this terse, cogent music, had even jaded listeners on the edge of their seats, thrilling afresh to the telling instrumental solos he conjured.
Three Beethoven Contredanses made the perfect encore. Oramo and his band should record them all.
Christopher Morley
