Members of the National Youth Orchestra of Great Britain completed their annual residency in the North-East by showcasing their formidable talents at Sage Gateshead.

After two weeks rehearsing together at Durham University’s College of St Hild and Bede, the 165 teenagers proved a cohesive musical force, opening the concert with a work that propelled one their own alumni onto the road of fame.

Thomas Ades’ kaleidoscopic Asyla – the plural of asylum – examines the word’s dual meaning of sanctuary and madhouse.

The opening movement, depicting refugees seeking asylum, featured ravishing strings and burnished horns, with a terrifying shriek of trumpets heralding impending danger.

Ades, who was a percussionist with the NYO, scored everything he could into into the section in the third movement.

Titled Ecstasio, it portrays the madness of a nightclub and calls for everything from six timpani to tuned cow bells and from bags of knives and forks to a water gong - not to mention a pounding bass drum.

Such is its relentless drive that Ades began hyperventilating while copying out the loops by hand and admitted himself to hospital, thinking he was having a heart attack.

The ferocity of NYO’s delivery certainly quickened the pulse.

Keeping firm hand on proceedings was conductor Francois-Xavier Roth, who did a magnificent job moulding the musical talent at his disposal.

Richard Strauss’ Ein Heldenleben, in which the composer cast himself in the role of cultural hero facing down his critics, was done full justice by the orchestra.

A highlight was Des Helden Gefahrtin (the Hero’s Companion) - brilliantly conveyed by the orchestra’s 17-year-old leader Roberto Ruisi, whose seductive singing lines oozed passion.

Collectively and individually they all shone in a dazzling performance.