'Derek Williams and the NSO were taking a calculated risk with Richard Strauss' An Alpine Symphony.

Like Bruckner, Strauss includes Wagner tubas. Like Mahler, he uses cowbells. And he prescribes 12 "off-stage" horns - which on Saturday played from the rear of the hall.

The score presents pictorial snapshots. But there's also a dimension of feeling. And the orchestral mastery is such that every strand in the colour-drenched texture made sense.

From sunrise via gentle meadows to the mountain tops and down again, the orchestra brought focus and zest to each scene... before the pipe organ postlude in reflective vein.

In Wagner's Twilight of the Gods, the electrifying vocal power of Meryl Richardson was amazing from so willowy a figure - the very opposite of a Wagnerian stereotype.