Guest soloist Martin Helmchen (pictured) was making his debut with the orchestra conducted by music director Kazuki Yamada in the first of those works: the Piano Concerto No 26 by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart.

Completed in 1786, the year before Mozart died aged thirty-five, the work became known as the ‘Coronation Concerto’, according to the programme, after its performance at court at the coronation of Leopold II as Holy Roman Emperor in 1790, with the composer himself at the piano.

Helmchen demonstrated how he had built up such a strong relationship with Yamada in other orchestras with a performance in this rarely performed concerto that was suitably eloquent and imperious and handled with perfect timing, especially in the concerto’s complex virtuoso demands. Piano and orchestra combined beautifully throughout, the latter maintaining a strongly rhythmic backdrop to the joyful ceremonial melodies under Yamada’s assured direction.

The post-interval fare took the audience forward a hundred years, from Viennese classicism to the Romantic era, with a performance of Anton Bruckner’s Ninth Symphony.

Celebrating the 200th anniversary of his birth, the CBSO gave full rein to his convictions as by then ill devout Catholic who had been having deathly premonitions, with a performance of immense power.

Indeed, having dedicated his Seventh Symphony to King Ludwig of Bavaria and his Eighth to Emperor Franz Joseph, Bruckner raised his eyes higher to offer the mighty Ninth to God himself.

The CBSO performed the piece with a passion and clarity that enabled you to enjoy the tender and lyrical passages as much as the thrilling build up in tension leading to repeated rhythmical and melodic climaxes that must have topped the sound levels ever experienced in Symphony Hall.

The emotionally draining music with the strings often playing in overdrive reached its peak in the Adagio third movement (Bruckner having failed to complete a fourth), with pitch-perfect playing by the tubas in introducing glowing harmonies representing Bruckner’s farewell from life.

There were clear excerpts from those Seventh and Eighth Symphonies and the Benedictus from his F Minor Mass and the Miserere (“Have mercy on me, O God”) from the Gloria of his D Minor Mass, ensuring the Ninth of its place as a valedictory and symphonic prayer for clemency in the next life.

BBC Radio 3 will broadcast the recorded concert at 7.30 pm on Monday, January 13th, 2025.

The CBSO will perform a Choral Christmas with Jess Gillam from Thursday, December 19th to Friday, December 20th at Symphony Hall. For tickets call 0121 780 3333 or book online at cbso.co.uk.