A warm and airless Congress Theatre was stirred by the spirit of the Bolshoi on Sunday, with an afternoon of Shostakovich, Tchaikovsky and Rachmaninoff by the virtuosos of the London Philharmonic Orchestra.

An experienced audience was given a chance to show its appreciation quickly and did so with gusto as the powerful crescendo of Shostakovich’s six-minute Festive Overture rang out across the concert hall.

This vibrant and, ultimately, joyous little piece was originally written as a celebration of a Soviet five-year-plan, and used as the theme of the Moscow Olympics, but a playfulness and a lightness had spring here from that austere terroir.

For the Tchaikovsky, Harriet Krijgh swayed her body and moved her audience equally as this 24 year old Dutch cellist lead the orchestra through seven explorations of a theme.

The deftness with which Texan conductor Robert Trevino teased the light woodwind refrains from barely-perceptible to becoming dominant of the central cello in Variations On A Rococo Theme was just one of a dozen masterly contributions from the podium.

After the intermission, during the first of four movements of Rachmaninoff’s hour-long Second Symphony, his left hand seemed to reach almost into the Stradivarian bodies of the string section, tremblingly coaxing and drawing out the crescendo he desired as the movement drew to an ominous climax.

As the piece closed in a carnivalesque fourth movement crowned once more by violins, the capacity audience replied with a minutes-long ovation, insisting that Trevino return three times to the stage and have his orchestra upstanding time and again to receive their just rewards.

Four stars