'Symphony by a Londoner. When Vaughan Williams put forward that alternative title for A London Symphony, he claimed that geographical details were secondary.

But there's no mistaking the Westminster chimes at the beginning and end. And RVW himself associated the slow movement with Bloomsbury Square in November. The scherzo has been compared to a Whistler "nocturne", while some would detect the flowing Thames in the epilogue.

All this, and more, was vividly caught by Nottingham Symphony Orchestra under Derek Williams. The canvas encompassed scene painting, human emotions and mystery.

Using the Minster acoustics to the full, the brass opened with a fanfare the Royal Philharmonic's Gareth Wood wrote for Euro'96.

No composer is an island; Vaughan Williams had German and French musical mentors, and his London teacher Parry was acknowledging a debt to Brahms in the Elegy he wrote at his passing. This full-blooded piece followed a nimble account of Vaughan Williams overture to a Greek comedy, The Wasps.

The fourth of Elgar's "Pomp and Circumstance" marches sounded just as assured. And 12 singers from Operating Theatre brought a splash of Mediterranean colour with Vaughan Williams dreamy Serenade to Music, inspired by Shakespeare.'