An intriguing premiere by a member of the orchestra joined a Brahms overture, a Dvorak concerto and a Sibelius symphony in YSO’s programme on Saturday, which was conducted by Alasdair Jamieson.

Violinist David Truswell’s A Day in the Life of Den is an imaginative tribute to a generous, and seemingly exuberant, builder friend. Contrasting generally smooth string lines with brash brass, he pictures Den from alarm clock to building site, including machinery, with a celebratory party when the job is done.

A blues and a breezy waltz find their way into these 12 minutes, which have enough ideas to be expanded into a full-scale symphony.

Brahms’s Tragic Overture had provided a crisp, confident start. Tim Lowe was the exceptional soloist in Dvorak’s Cello Concerto, combining a clear sense of direction with a seamless legato. He took a broader view than Jamieson of the Allegro’s lovely second theme and at times seemed more pressed for tone than he might have preferred.

But together they achieved a perfect balance in the Adagio, an oasis of calm offering an ideal springboard into the finale, where rhythmic changes and the cello’s dizzying altitude built into a brilliant closing flourish.

Rhythms were taut, too, in Sibelius’s Third Symphony (1907), amid darting flutes and intense strings in the opening movement. The arrival of the ‘big tune’ in the finale needed greater conviction from the lower strings, but Jamieson’s increasingly martial approach worked wonders at the finish.