Derived from the score he supplied for Eisenstein’s epic film Alexander Nevsky, Prokofiev’s eponymous seven-movement cantata retains all the vividness, immediacy and vigour of that original soundtrack.

It calls for a huge orchestra (including seven percussionists plus timpani), and here the CBSO under the perennially galvanised Andris Nelsons delivered all its demands vibrantly and colourfully.

Equally starring was the CBSO Chorus, the Russian and Latin texts delivered with expertly-placed diction under David Lawrence’s choral direction, and mezzo-soprano Nadezhda Serdiuk was sorrowing and compassionate in her grieving, visionary solo.

And visionary indeed is Beethoven’s Eroica Symphony, trampling upon its original dedication to Napoleon but instead opening up a whole new world of symphonic writing.

This performance of the greatest of all symphonies was yet another example of the CBSO’s infinite willing trust in their conductor, every orchestral section rising to the occasion triumphantly. Detail, nuance, power and inwardness were all here, and Nelsons’ dynamic conducting brought to life documentary accounts of Beethoven himself on the podium.

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