THE Northern Sinfonia musical director Thomas Zehetmair’s latest appearance at the Sage Gateshead saw him leading from the front in a rare outing of Haydn’s Violin Concert in C.

One of three authenticated violin concertos by the composer, it features dazzling double-stopping and repeated triplets.

The Sinfonia strings under Kyra Humphreys provided a warm pizzicato backing to Zehetmair’s long singing lines in the slow movement, while his cadenza was breathtaking.

If Haydn is well-known for surprising the listener with his witty musical tricks, then his Symphony No 60 in C takes the biscuit.

Full of farce and quirky turns, it was written as a suite of incidental music for a tale abut a bridegroom who is so absent-minded that he has to be constantly reminded of his imminent marriage.

Zehetmair’s comic timing was perfect; from the tailing off strings being nudged back into action to the depiction of the scatterbrained groom through the horns and oboes.

The presto, replete with folk melodies and rhythms, was delivered at helter-skelter speed.

The evening ended with a superlative account of Beethoven’s Symphony No 6 Pastoral.

The strings were both lush and luminous, allowing superb playing from the woodwinds to stand out in sharp relief.

As for the symphony’s storm, one could almost visualise the clouds gathering as the basses and double basses built up a rumbling head of head of steam, before thunderclaps were unleashed in all their fury, with the help of timpanist Marney O’Sullivan.

The storm subsided into a shepherd’s song of ineffable calm. It was Zehetmair zest at its best . . . with a sinfonia in top form.