In this Swansea festival concert, conductor Richard Hickox balanced two large-scale works apparently at opposite ends of the classic/romantic spectrum. Brahms's Violin Concerto is a romantic work that consciously looks back to classical symphonic form while in Beethoven's Mass in C major the sense of passion bursting from the restraints of classical structure was all the more dramatically underlined for being performed after the Brahms.

Dutch violinist Janine Jensen was the soloist in the Brahms, technically very much in command and at her most convincing in the robustly stirring material of the first movement, and when the wilder abandon of the Gypsy finale did suit, if not actually justify, the tossing of the long hair. Jensen was less successful in embracing the lyricism of Brahms into her playing and Hickox could not make up the deficit in the orchestral tuttis, despite sympathetic support from the strings of the BBC National Orchestra of Wales.

The concert stepped up a gear in the Beethoven. Hickox, conducting without a score, was keenly focused on the BBC National Chorus of Wales. The chorus responded with vibrant if occasionally over-enthusiastic singing, while the heart-stabbing moments came from tenor Mark Padmore.

However, Padmore and his fellow soloists - Rebecca Evans, Pamela Helen Stephen and Stephen Varcoe - were distinctly disadvantaged by being placed behind the orchestra, with some the bloom of their voices being lost, though probably not to a radio audience. Yet in the Agnus Dei, in which first the clarinet obligato and latter the horn phrases create such a mood of peace, the real integration of instrumentalists, soloists, and chorus sealed a joyful performance.