The BBC National Orchestra of Wales recently named Jac van Steen as their principal guest conductor and, if this performance is anything to go by, the players must hope that he will be a frequent guest. Here was music-making at its vibrant best.

Van Steen's Dutch compatriot Janine Jensen was the soloist in Tchaikovsky's Violin Concerto. Her command of the bravura element of the work was always convincing; more impressive still was her integration of the virtuosity into an interpretation characterised by an emotional freshness and warmth. The sound of the lower register of Jensen's violin is particularly beautiful and, in allowing it to sing with the natural expressivity of a mezzosoprano, she underlined the lyrical genius of Tchaikovsky, the canzonetta eloquent yet heart-wrenching in its simplicity.

It was in the finale that the strength of the collaboration with Van Steen emerged. The pair were so finely balanced that the violin's exchanges, first with woodwind and then cellos, created at times an almost Mozartean intimacy - but they were ultimately fiery and exhilarating, and Russian to the core.

At the opening of the concert, in Bartok's Two Pictures, Van Steen had demonstrated an acute ear for texture and rhythmic precision. These are prerequisites for Stravinsky's Rite of Spring but, again, it was respect for the music's Russian sensibility that defined his approach to this great score. There was a raw and earthy quality, by turns poignant and almost brutal in its intensity, with a wide dynamic range - yet Van Steen also pointed up the tiniest of phrases with startling clarity and finesse.

It became an electrifying display; rarely have the painted panels by Frank Brangwyn that decorate the walls of this hall seemed to resonate so vividly. Although their subject is Empire, the images teem with a riot of colour and a balletic energy, and the affinity with the Stravinsky was remarkable.