This was programming from Robin Ticciati and the SCO, Berlioz alongside Mendelssohn juxtaposing two very different approaches to romanticism and with the fire and drama of Beethoven prefaced by the cool clarity of Bach.

Berlioz's King Lear overture is a strange, unsettling work. Mendlessohn's First Piano Concerto is a different proposition entirely, dramatic but - unlike Berlioz - never self-consciously so. Stephen Hough was the soloist, flying through the sparkling passagework of the outer movements with ease. The chorale-like passage was particularly effective; Hough's delicate timbre supported by the hushed tone of the lower SCO strings.

However, George Benjamin's arrangements of Bach - two movements from the Art of Fugue - belonged to a different sound world.

With the opening chords of Eroica the programme came together with Beethoven as the culmination of the tradition that originated with Bach and as the stepping-off point for romanticism. Ticciati's vision of the symphony aspired to greatness: this was not a pared-down historical performance with driven tempi, but something altogether more majestic.

Yet, with grandeur tempered by the timbre of the natural brass and the lithe, clean sound of the SCO strings, the performance never felt weighed down. Ticciati's assured shaping of the work combined by the warmth of the SCO sound for a most effective, individual performance.