Bravo to the Canberra Symphony Orchestra for programming Richard Meale's Viridian and for performing this strikingly sensual work with such conviction!

It is as if the composer releases the orchestral instruments from the restrictions of their conventional voices and sets them free to wander in a lush imaginary world created out of organic orchestral textures.

Abandoning his earlier modernist style in Viridian, Meale was liberated to write a series of short, meditative evocations, beginning with a haze of strings and woodwinds, loosing undulating ocean waves of cello and double bass sound, interspersed with swirling flocks of parrot-like sounds dipping through the setting in the screeching of the upper strings, leading to a finale in which the orchestra unites to form one extraordinary instrumental voice.

Rachmaninoff's Piano Concerto No.2 in C minor Opus 18 never ceases to astound. Created on the foundations of the great Russian traditions of orchestral composition, the concerto is striving towards something new and assertively individualistic in style.

The recurrent rippling motifs of the piano line and the soaring arch of the orchestral treatment of the first subject create a grand, spacious landscape in which Rachmaninoff is free to move and shape the space in luscious melodies.

Soloist Andrea Lam began impressively with a slow and steady crescendo rising powerfully to meet the entry of the strings. Her performance was measured at first, maintaining careful control, building to a sparkling interpretation of the final Allegro and Scherzando with a mighty crescendo and dazzling cadenza. Alan Vivian's clarinet solo lit up the transition to E major in the Adagio sostenuto contrasting with the intensity of the piano to re-awaken the magic in this well-loved work.

To complete the demanding program, the CSO embarked on selections from Prokofiev's Romeo and Juliet ballet score: Montague and Capulets, Masks, Mercutio and Tybalt, Romeo and Juliet balcony scene, The Duke, Romeo and Juliet before parting and Romeo at Juliet's grave.

Prokofiev's harrowing opening chord embodies anguish and agony of irreconcilable differences encapsulated in the struggle between Monatgues and Capulets, but suggestive of the greater human condition.

The orchestration is masterful and the CSO revelled in the score, confidently embracing the interplay of strings, woodwinds and brass. Benn Sutcliffe's tenor saxophone boldly lifted the Dance of the Knights, while trumpets, trombones, French horns, cornet and tuba maintained the underlying current of violence and retribution while the strings and woodwinds described the narrative line.

Robert Harris' lovely viola solo captured the poignancy of the doomed lovers, before the inevitable tragic end of the work unfolded in slowly collapsing wave of melancholy music.

There was a resoundingly enthusiastic response from the audience for this performance by the CSO under the baton of conductor Jessica Cottis. Charismatic, precise and expressive in her musical direction, there was no doubt that Cottis had led the orchestra through a musical performance that brought joy equally to both musicians and patrons.