Chinese conductor Lu Jia has been based in Italy since winning the Trento competition in 1990, and has gained a strong reputation with many major European, American and Australian orchestras. Now, within a week, Jia has made debuts with the City of Birmingham and Bournemouth symphony orchestras.

Under the inspiring influence of principal conductor Marin Alsop, the Bournemouth orchestra is in fine form, and Jia, making a cautious start with Berlioz's overture Beatrice and Benedict, was fortunate to be in such safe hands. Definition of the musical structure was distinctly lacking, but the players rallied to the cause and the piece remained buoyant.

Tamsin Little, the soloist in Mozart's Violin Concerto No 4, made a similarly tentative start, getting into her stride only in the cadenza to the first movement when her tone began to flow. The central Andante cantabile was delivered in true singing style, and, even though a slight unsteadiness returned in the rondeau, Little's graceful poise prevailed.

This rather insubstantial first half was balanced by the weight and opulence of Elgar's First Symphony in the second. Jia's approach to the opening movement was again inauspicious, although mercifully without the pomposity that sometimes passes for the simple nobility stipulated by Elgar. But with the animated second movement came a sense of the conductor beginning to impose his authority on the orchestra. Not before time. The response was immediate, with the violins in particular producing a sound which, with more flattering acoustics, would have been sumptuous. While on one level the gorgeous flow of Elgar's thematic material gratifies the ear, there is an instability beneath the surface. Jia certainly reflected that unrest yet, by the end of the Adagio and its glimpse of a more serene reconciliation, he had created a solid platform on which to build the grandeur of the finale. Had there been any doubt about Elgar's capacity to communicate something profound to an English audience, it was dispelled here. The prolonged applause was clearly heartfelt.