The St Petersburg Philharmonic Orchestra’s visit to Sage Gateshead was keenly anticipated and there was a palpable frisson of excitement in the sell-out hall as the massed ranks of players took their place on the stage.

Conducted by the Yuri Temirkanov, the orchestra opened the concert with music from Sergei Prokofiev’s Romeo and Juliet. It Dance of the Knights had a jaunty swagger and would have been familiar with Sunderland football fans, as the signature tune that plays them on to the pitch at home.

Temirkanov conducting style was economic. A nod of the head, a flutter of a hand or a sweeping arm gesture was all it took to keep the sweep of drama flowing, as the orchestra took care of the finer detail.

Luxuriant strings were underpinned by resonant double basses and cellos, while the brass was burnished and the percussion rounded off by piano, just fitting onto edge of stage.

There was plenty to savour, including lovely lilt to the Dance of the Antilles Girls and beautifully measured pace of Friar Laurence, depicted by bassoons and tuba.

The strings cried in anguish as Romeo’s at Juliet’s grave. In Tybalt’s Death the duelling music lunged and spun dizzily with Tybalt’s death throes conveyed with throbbing percussion. The relentless treading chords of the cortege were driven home before a staggering climax.

Pianist Nikolai Lugansky's account of Rachaminov Rhapsody on a Theme ’s was delivered with runs of quicksilver and incisive percussive passages, with the orchestra was sensitively balanced. The most-loved variation, which inverts the Paganini theme to create a melody, was sublime.

The programme ended with Ravel’s Daphne and Chloe Suite No 2, which bursts into life with birdsong on the woodwinds and beams of breaking daylight depicted by glistening strings.

The flute solos were a treat. Temirkanov drove the finale home with with crashing chords.

Encores are rare, but Temirkanov bowed to cries of more. In a nod to his hosts he presented a soothing account of Elgar's Salut d' amour.

Gavin Engelbrecht