The new BSO season opened at the Lighthouse on Wednesday to rapturous acclaim.

It was billed as "Soaring Strauss" but that rather underplayed the rest of the wonderful programme.

Granted, Also Sprach ZarathrustRa by Richard Strauss (which took up the second half) was a fitting way to celebrate the 150th anniversary of the composer's birth.

However the evening's title might well have included the words Perfect Prokofiev and Breathtaking Beethoven.

A full house turned out to mark the new season and what is the sixth year of Kirill Karabits as principal conductor. The concert was broadcast live on Radio 3, the first of six to feature in the coming months.

It opened with Prokofiev's joyful Symphony Number 1, a loose imitation of the style of Haydn and one of the composer's most enduringly popular works. Clearly it’s a piece the orchestra and its conductor love too.

Then Beethoven's Piano Concerto Number 1, rich, rousing and beautiful with an incredible performance by the world renowned Robert Levin on the piano.

Informed chatter raved about his improvised cadenzas, though the less well informed of us just thought he was somewhere around stunning. The enthusiastic Levin and Karabits hugged at the end of his virtuoso performance.

Also Sprach ZarathrustRa (more popularly known for the first couple of minutes of 2001 A Space Odyssey and the opening sequence of Elvis Presley’s live concerts) was intense, complex and yes soaring though clearly it received with little less enthusiasm than that reserved for Beethoven, which bordered on the wild.

BSO chief executive, Dougie Scarfe thanked the audience members and volunteers for their continuing support at the beginning of the evening.

“You inspire us to do what we do,” he said.

It promises to be a spectacular season. Again.