YORK Guildhall Orchestra’s concert opened with the first performance of Dick Blackford’s atmospheric tone poem, Cruachan.

The work drew its inspiration not only from the landscape dominated by Ben Cruachan in Argyll but also composers from the past: there were echoes of Mendelssohn, albeit funky ones, and Arnold Bax.

The piece is, however, original and distinct, the orchestral colours awash with rich tonal harmonies. The playing was both excellent and illuminating.

It was, too, for the second premiere of the evening, Lauren Leigh’s Motto. This proved to be a delightful, often quirky movement. I could easily imagine the music as a film score.

The jewel in the evening’s musical crown came in between, in a wonderful performance of Wagner’s magical prelude to Act One in his opera Lohengrin.

The tonal colours drawn from the orchestra by conductor Simon Wright varied from radiant – exquisite string playing – to genuine spine-tingling for example in the brass climax.

As much as I enjoyed Elgar’s Sea Pictures, not least because the orchestra was joined by the velvety, cultured voice of mezzo-soprano Louise Winter, I found my concentration wavering the longer the work went on. I don’t find this to be one of his most inspired scores.

The second half was awash with plenty of pomp and circumstance. But the highlight was the performance of Poulenc’s utterly enjoyable Suite Les Biches.

The performance oozed energy and vitality – the rhythmic playing of the brass being a particular joy.