As soon as Natalie Clein steps out, cello in hand, you sense that you are in for a memorable performance. The clues are all there in the purposeful walk and the dreamy, slightly distant look on her face that tells you she is already immersed in the music, before she plays a note. And so it was last Friday at the Sheldonian, when she took centre stage for Saint-Saens’ Cello Concerto No.1.

This was a captivating performance of a gloriously playful piece that carries the listener along on a melodic and emotional rollercoaster, from the jaunty opening to the eloquence of the second movement minuet, with a persistent yearning threading its way throughout. This was a piece perfectly suited to showcasing Clein’s immense musicality and virtuosity, and she effortlessly held the audience in her thrall from the moment she drew her bow across the strings. There was some solid support from the orchestra, under Marios Papadopoulos’s expressive direction, but this was very much Clein’s show, and she was obliged to give an encore before the audience finally let her go.

Elsewhere, there was the opportunity to hear the world premiere of City of Trees by Chris Ferebee, written during the Philomusica’s 2011 Composers’ Workshop. The piece is a musical recreation of Ferebee’s native town of Atlanta, and the town of his alma mater, Durham, and is atmospheric rather than melodic, but with some very lovely moments, particularly for the violins.

Bringing the programme to a rousing close was Tchaikovsky’s emotional fourth symphony, in which the human spirit battles with fate, the two constantly interweaving powerfully and restlessly until the human spirit finally triumphs.

There were impressive contributions from all sections of the orchestra, with some particularly scene-stealing moments from the woodwind and brass, some wonderfully light and well-sustained pizzicato from the strings in the Scherzo movement, and a gloriously full-blooded, stirring finale. This was the Philomusica at its magnificent best.