Robin Ticciati possesses an intellectual and artistic versatility that belies his years.

I have already observed, in his first short season as principal conductor of the SCO, a suavity in his interpretations. But there is also a tremendously incisive quality to his conducting, which marked every key structural point and every mood shift in a blazing account on Friday of Ligeti’s blistering Piano Concerto, given a barnstorming performance by pianist Tom Poster in which the music’s jaggy, bouncy rhythms ricocheted off the City Hall walls as Poster, revelling in the resonances of Bartok and Ravel that propelled and coloured the music, splashed a generously-sized palette with fabulous colouring and, in the slower section, some genuinely haunting atmospheres.

But it was interesting, in the middle of all this glorious buccaneering, to keep an eye on Ticciati: watching him direct it was like observing precision-engineering in action. The only flaw, to my ears, was in the riotous opening section which, surely, should have fielded a bigger string band. The single strings were blown out of the park and inaudible in the almighty clatter of the music.

And then, in a concert that had opened with a warm performance of five of Dvorak’s Legends, Ticciati moved into a more expressive sphere with an account of Beethoven’s Pastoral Symphony which was characterised by what I can only call the conductor’s joined-up thinking. Extremely fluid and smooth, with very little of the detached playing that is so fashionable, Ticciati’s Pastoral belonged to no school of thought other than his own; and, with some keenly-detailed and mellifluous playing, the SCO faithfully reflected the conductor’s approach to the great piece.

Star rating: ****