Beaming conductor Stephen Bell told Friday’s audience at the Sheldonian that he foresaw complaints in The Oxford Times over his exclusion of The Blue Danube from the City of Oxford Orchestra’s Viennese New Year Concert. Well, here is a mention of the omission, if emphatically not a complaint, there being so much to compensate for it in the programme, besides Johann Strauss II’s glorious Emperor Waltz, with its triumphant drumrolls and brass, that was the ostensible substitute.

The orchestra’s 39th such concert, the fourth with Bell on the podium, began in appropriately upbeat style with Mozart’s overture to The Marriage of Figaro. The four-minute piece fairly fizzed along, with the charismatic conductor bouncing around like a marionette as he propelled the players through the urgent, bustling melodies.

Rather more decorum prevailed throughout the masterly account of the concert’s main event, Beethoven’s Triple Concerto, though there was scarcely a let up in the pace, especially in the first movement which in other hands has been known to drag.

In this unusual work — with its subtle interplay between soloists and orchestra, and its sudden surprises — were paraded the skills of three remarkable players. ‘Local’ pianist Tom Poster, who first appeared with this orchestra on the eve of his 15th birthday, was joined by cellist Guy Johnston, the BBC Young Musician of the Year in 2000 (when Tom was a class winner), and Lily Francis, a violinist whose reputation gained further lustre from the confident, technically flawless performance given here. That all three are colleagues in the celebrated Aronowitz Ensemble doubtless accounted for their rapport, their observable joy in making music together.

Lots of Strauss ‘lollipops’ to finish, including Roses from the South, Hunting Polka, Annen Polka and (as encore, but of course!) a clapalong Radetzky March. In all, an uplifting start to the year.