Unless you are at the theatre and peering into the pit, you will hear rather than see the splendid orchestra of Welsh National Opera.

Its appearances on the concert platform are therefore much welcomed, if only for the opportunity to assess what it makes of the non-operatic repertory.

On this occasion, it brought with it the company’s equally resplendent chorus for Poulenc’s Gloria, in which the soloist was WNO young artist Joanne Boag, and itself launched Mahler’s titanic Fifth Symphony, all under the baton of Alexander Polianichko.

Ms Boag rather laboured her part in the Poulenc, where a limpid address was called for and the chorus often employed an attack that made it sound stiffly Verdian.

The Gloria, laid-back and often jocular, required a much cooler approach, far from Ms Boag’s rather icy altitudes and the choir’s full-frontal delivery. But it had its moments.

The Mahler was interesting in terms of scale rather than refinement, the orchestra dealing with its length as one would have expected from musicians used to an evening to setting out on a single discursive journey. Fatigue they know not.

There was some considered section playing, not least by harp and strings in the famous Adagietto, and principal trumpet Dean Wright’s opening fanfare and sundry interjections lit the flame and kept it aglow.

But Mr Polianichko moved swiftly over the depths, serving up a spirited and stirring version of a work that with its final bars should have made us remember everything that had gone before. Instead, it sounded as though the destination had been all.