Subtitled “Transfiguration”, this imaginatively programmed concert took us from Haydn to Mahler via Mozart and it was good to see emeritus conductor, Barry Wordsworth charismatically back on the podium.

Haydn’s Symphony 88 was played with vibrance from the very first note. Ruth Rogers is a very dynamic leader and exciting to watch. I particularly liked this interpretation of the largo with the melody passed from section to section and Wordsworth ensuring that we didn’t miss a single detail. For me, the tiny oboe turns in the last variation were a high spot in miniature. And I really admired the way the exuberant quavers and semi quavers were played with delicate richness in the finale along with some neat, high speed “vamp” especially from bassoons and trumpets.

In the traditional concerto slot came Carolyn Sampson singing two big Mozart numbers. Dove sono is my favourite Marriage of Figaro aria, and goodness knows there’s no shortage of competition. She sang it with lush passion and her first entry, after the orchestral minor suspension moved me to tears: a show stopper, as always. Then came Ah se in ciel, benigne stelle which is a real showpiece. Sampson’s virtuosic rendering was perfectly balanced and blended with the orchestra. Wordsworth gave Sampson all the space she needed to give us all those trills, arpeggios, leaps and runs with insouciant warmth – and of course all the splendid technical skill of a singer right at the top of her game.

Mahler 4 is a huge and pretty intense work for which the pre-interval presence on stage was expanded to include four percussionists, plus timps, four flutes, harp, contra bassoon, eight double basses and extra brass. Mahler loved col legno (tapping strings with the wood of the bow) and lower string pizzicato – all played with verve in this thoughtful performance. Rogers played the opening solo in the second movement on a smaller instrument sitting on a stand beside her – a rather wistful, thinner, higher tone. The lyricism of the third movement (which gives the more famous Adagietto from the 5th symphony a run for its money) was elegantly squeezed for every drop of emotion.

Then came the dramatic climax of the afternoon. Wordworth opened the fourth movement without a break and as it set off Carolyn Sampson wandered in very slowly and thoughtfully between the first and second violins, stopping to stare into the far distance several times as she did so. It was a perfect way to present Mahler’s magical, setting of Das himmlische Leben, which is a child’s vision of heaven – so much more evocative than having the soloist sitting stolidly on stage during the first three movements. It felt movingly fresh and of course, Sampson sang it with sweetness and beauty alongside some very nice percussion and harp work.

Susan Elkin