The BBC Symphony Orchestra is more often heard than seen thanks to BBC Radio 3 but this concert, conducted by the charismatic and dynamic young New Yorker James Gaffigan, showed they can be even better live than they are on the airwaves.

Karl Amadeus Hartmann’s Adagio opened the concert. This one-movement symphony is an enigmatic piece of music. Its Adagio title is true of its beginning and end but, in the 15 minutes between, there are contrasting episodes and much organic development of the plaintive melody that unifies the symphony. Even in the loudest passages, with two timpanists pounding away, each instrument could be heard and the music’s progression discerned.

The rest of the concert was more familiar. Veronika Eberle was the soloist in Felix Mendelssohn’s Violin Concerto, which was played with more variety of tempo than usual and with greater delicacy and subtlety in the slower passages. It is difficult to make such a well-known piece sound fresh but this young Bavarian violinist succeeded in doing so.

Johannes Brahms’ Fourth Symphony formed the second part of the concert. Mr Gaffigan was clearly in his element and again produced a reading of a well-known work that made the audience listen afresh.

This was a remarkable performance with tremendous drive in all four movements yet the details – for example the triangle in the scherzo – could be heard distinctly.