Colston Hall has a new foyer. It may not sound like much, but with its massive, airy atrium and bridged access to the auditorium, the change has transformed the concert-going experience, giving a definite buzz to this Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra concert.

Given that, in medieval times, there was a Carmelite friary on the site, the choice of Martinu's rarely heard triptych The Frescoes of Piero della Francesca to open the programme felt appropriate. The piece was inspired by a visit to the basilica of San Francesco in Arezzo, but it is not simply a depiction of the legends surrounding the timber relics of the True Cross; rather, it aims to reflect, in musical terms, the wonder evoked by Piero's masterpiece. Martinu's slightly rambling process of free association makes it a tricky work to bring off, but conductor Kirill Karabits's attention to colouristic detail and atmospherics gave it cohesion, and conveyed a sense of awe.

Awe was also the response to the burnished gold sound produced by violinist Renaud Capuçon from the first bars of Bruch's Violin Concerto in G minor. Capuçon's instrument is the Panette Guarneri del Gesù, and his simple, unaffected delivery seemed designed to let the violin's characteristic sound speak for itself. It gave a calm serenity to a sometimes overly dramatised work. This was balanced by the high spirits of the Hungarian Gypsy finale, a potent reminder that it was partly inspired by the legendary violinist Joseph Joachim.

Perhaps now doubly conscious of belonging to a noble fraternity, it was the violins of the BSO who threw themselves wholeheartedly into the passion of Sibelius's Second Symphony. While it was hardly an earth-shattering interpretation on Karabits's part, it had tremendous flow.