It sounds odd to describe any of Brahms’s major orchestral works as a comparative rarity, but his Double Concerto for Violin and Cello doesn’t turn up all that often in the concert hall. As the OSO’s thoughtful programme note suggested, perhaps that’s because it isn’t easy to get a good tonal balance between this unusual combination of solo instruments and a large-scale orchestra.

But as orchestra chairman Caroline Johnson confirmed in an Oxford Times interview: “During conductor Robert Max’s time with us, we’ve played challenging and unusual pieces.” The Double Concerto certainly qualifies on both scores, so it was an ideal curtain-raiser to the Orchestra’s 2009/10 season. The OSO has also developed a Young Artists Partnership Scheme, an initiative designed to help young professional musicians develop their solo careers, and Tamsin Waley-Cohen (violin) and Gemma Rosefield (cello) both appeared as part of this scheme.

Brahms requires the solo cellist to set the mood at the outset, and Rosefield provided a properly decisive start, which was matched by the orchestral playing. Waley-Cohen fitted in well, but, to my ears, seemed slightly less in tune with the more romantic aspects of the music. Meanwhile, conductor Max negotiated the potential sound balance problems most successfully, not least by scrupulous observance of dynamics – fiery passages, lyricism, and taut rhythms, all were well expressed in this performance.

As unannounced jam in the sandwich, Waley-Cohen and Rosefield followed up with a delightfully humorous encore, dazzlingly played. Intrigued, several of us rushed to look at the score afterwards: it turned out to be an arrangement of a Handel Passacaglia by Halvorsen. Finally, it was back to the OSO for Strauss’s Also Sprach Zarathustra. Max’s swirling, sometimes explosive, interpretation suited this large orchestra well. The light and shade in the score was also well brought out, and the brass department, in particular, sounded as if it was really revelling in its work.