YORK Guildhall Orchestra presented an ambitious programme with assurance last Saturday, expertly directed by the authoritative and reassuring presence of conductor Simon Wright.

In a performance by turns humorous, tender and powerful, Richard Strauss’s mischievous tone poem Till Eulenspiegel gave every section of the orchestra opportunities to shine. Energised by Janus Wadsworth’s confident reliability in the prominent horn solos, the incisive brass strongly underlined the judgemental climax.

A slimmed-down band sensitively accompanied internationally renowned guitarist Craig Ogden in Rodrigo’s Concierto de Aranjuez, the first movement pleasingly danceable, the third aptly delicate. Alex Nightingale’s touching phrasing of the well-known cor anglais theme of the slow movement was reflected in the soloist’s idiomatic decorations; the orchestra in turn responded to Ogden’s Spanish evocations with suitably sultry pianissimo colouring. Orchestral detail was tastefully brought out; with the guitar discreetly amplified, balance was never a worry. Ogden’s generous solo encore—the famous Asturias by Albéniz—had warmth and panache.

After an arresting opening, the first movement of Shostakovich’s Fifth Symphony at times lost momentum, but the orchestra had the measure of the second movement’s grimly comic, sometimes macabre, dance. There was just the right balance between desolation and consolation in the slow movement, its occasionally operatic fervour nicely caught. Its doubts were blown away by the last movement, the long gradual acceleration finely judged, and the coda imbued with appropriate bluster.

The audience’s enthusiastic ovation was thoroughly deserved. York is lucky to have an orchestra as accomplished as this.