the orchestra provided no programme, but instead launched without preamble or introduction into Bernstein's Candide Overture, an exuberant start to a concert which also featured Eric Coates's The London Suite, an atmospheric if rose-tinted evocation of the city, and Tchaikovsky's Symphony No 5. As with most orchestras of this age and range of abilities, their performance ranged from splendidly full-voiced and confident to understated and rather scrappy, especially in the demanding scope of the symphony, but they found an impressively expansive breadth at times. Fucick's famous March of the Gladiators provided a rousing but slightly out-of-place conclusion to the first half, and might better have served as an encore.