FITTINGLY the latest concert in the Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra’s autumn season was dedicated to those who have remembered the orchestra in their will.

So Musical Gifts was a celebration on a number of levels.

Of those to whom the evening was dedicated of course.

The pieces themselves, Siegfried’s Idyll by Richard Wagner, a symphonic present to the composer’s wife Cosima and new born son and then Schumann’s Symphony No 2.

It was clearly also a celebration, if not necessarily intended, of the return of a live audience to the orchestra’s performance after another month of digital only, in the second lockdown.

But certainly every performance can be viewed as a reason to celebrate. Just ask those orchestras still unable to return.

Unsurprisingly Wagner shows a different side in Siegfried’s Idyll, gentle, calm and contented but with the soaring strings that are unmistakably him.

Appropriately it was premiered at his lakeside home in Lucerne, now the twin town of Bournemouth.

Schumann’s Second, a traditional four movement is an explosion of pure joy and utterly uplifting, despite his health problems at the time. It was dedicated to Oscar 1, King of Sweden and Norway.

The BSO players were at their finest and most exuberant under the baton of the brilliant guest conductor, Gergely Madaras.

And both pieces showed once again how blessed the BSO is to have the dynamic duo of leader Amyn Merchant and principal cello Jesper Svedberg leading the way for this outstanding, world class group of musicians.