THE BSO opened last night's performance with a jaunty rendition of Bach's Suite No.3, with a light and airy texture under the baton of principal conductor Kirill Karabits.

With the orchestra reduced to strings with a smattering of woodwind and period brass instruments, the ensemble opted to stand throughout the concert - which was recorded for live broadcast by BBC Radio 3.

The centrepiece was a moving interpretation of Britten's distinctive Serenade for Tenor, Horn and Strings. Veteran John Mark Ainsley was originally earmarked to sing the chromatic vocal role - a setting of poetry by Blake, Tennyson and Keats on the subjects of night, sleep and dreams - but was replaced in performance by operatic tenor Robert Murray.

Murray's eerie but passionate delivery perfectly captured the mood of the piece and would likely have proven a hit with the composer himself, so similar was the tone of the top of his range to that of Britten's partner Peter Pears.

Nicolas Fleury played the accompanying horn part with great sensitivity, disappearing off stage to deliver the final solo 'epilogue' with an appropriately distant quality as the lights were temporarily dimmed.

Under Karabits' direction the accompaniment was precise but elegiac.

The final piece was Mozart's Symphony No.39, which he wrote at the same time as its two more famous successors in 1788.

The conductor maintained the light tone of the earlier part of the concert, most appropriate for Mozart, and there was a great fizz and energy to the performance as it moved through the four movements.