Tadaaki Otaka, conductor laureate of the BBC National Orchestra of Wales, is in his element with the big symphonic repertoire, and his rapport with these players has produced memorable performances of Mahler, of which this was one. Otaka's Mahler can be slightly idiosyncratic in the matter of tempo, but this interpretation of the Fourth Symphony had fluency and simplicity. It allowed the work to be a paean to the innocence and joy of childhood, yet not gloss over its implicit ironies.

Mahler wrote the last movement, a setting for soprano from the folk collection Des Knaben Wunderhorn, long before any other part, then created the preceding three movements precisely so that the finale should be the inevitable culmination of all that had gone before. Otaka's pacing and his precise colouring, notably of the wind instruments and sleighbells, achieved exactly that, while the lustre of Emma Bell's voice meant that Das Himmlische Leben carried a radiant intensity. The BBCNOW players responded to Otaka with an almost childlike devotion, with Tim Thorpe's horn solos suitably magical, and leader Lesley Hatfield's playing capturing the subtle balance between ecstatic and demonic in the scherzo's violin solos.

Alina Ibragimova was the soloist in Saint-Saëns' Third Violin Concerto, which preceded the Mahler. While dedicated to the great violinist and composer Pablo de Sarasate, the concerto is characterised more by lyricism than virtuosity. Ibragimova brought an easy grace to the constant flow of melody and injected a brilliant vitality. However, her glorious Guarneri instrument and her expert voicing of its timbres was heard to greatest advantage in her wonderfully poised encore, the bourrée from Bach's B minor Partita.