First of all, this was smart programming for a Friday morning concert. The SSO brought us two English masterpieces, both associated with the Second World War. Benjamin Britten’s Violin Concerto was completed in 1938 when he was in America, where he and his partner, Peter Pears, soon found themselves trapped by the outbreak of war.

It was premiered in 1940 by the New York Philharmonic under John Barbirolli, with violinist Antonio Brosa, but after the war it was rarely played at all until Britten recorded it in the 1970s. Today, it is part of the central repertoire and much recorded.

It is a serious work – the composer had recently been moved by Alban Berg’s Violin Concerto – but it is also well within the virtuoso tradition, with plenty of double stopping and passages in high harmonics for the soloist. It seems to sense the coming tumult in sections of the opening and scherzo movements, with stabbing, unexpected orchestral chords, while the ending exudes unease as the harmony fluctuates between major and minor.