The programme indicates that City of Oxford Orchestra conductor Stephen Bell has an enormously busy schedule, but you get the sense that this is how he likes it. He’s an extraordinary grandstander, perpetually on the balls of his feet and prone to wild gestures. This is entertaining - and impressive, as it’s a style that requires close rapport with the players to work.

He certainly made sure that the opener, the overture to the Barber of Seville, got the audience (what there was of it) in the mood - it was as crisp and fizzy as Rossini’s wit required, and certainly didn’t outstay its welcome.

It was in the centrepiece that his intensity played a little less well. Brahms’ Concerto for Violin and Cello in A minor is an odd bird - yoking together two wildly unmatched instruments. Things are balanced by the interplay of multiple themes, thrown back and forth between the two instruments and the orchestra, and in the first movement the added nervous energy of the performance made this hard to follow. Fortunately the lovely, lilting middle movement grounded things, and the finale seemed to benefit from this - equally intense, but somehow seeming more coherent.

Dvorak’s 9th (which constituted the second half of the evening), is an extraordinary piece, thoroughly deserving its enduring popularity. It’s full of sudden tonal shifts and playful recurrences, almost experimental in the way it rubs right up against the limits of what traditional Western harmonies can do.

The orchestra certainly did it credit - their only misstep was that (perhaps predictably) the Largo was simply too fast. A shame, as Jessica Mogridge gave the celebrated Cor Anglais solo some heavy soul that could have withstood a more lingering treatment. That was quickly forgiven, though, as the rousing climax surfed on a wave of Bell’s energy and carried us into the chilly night stirred and refreshed.