The University of Melbourne Symphony Orchestra’s Great British Symphonic Showpieces was a major platform for the Melbourne Conservatorium’s new maestro, the British conductor Richard Davis, who arrived in early February. For his second concert here, he chose an all-British programme comprising the Four Sea Interludes from Britten’s opera Peter Grimes, Elgar’s Enigma Variations and Holst’s The Planets.

Now, 95 undiluted minutes of Britmus, it must be said, is a taxing stretch for any orchestra, especially the 90 or so young players who crammed the stage of Murdoch Hall almost to overflow. Taxing also for listeners who may feel that the days of English cultural dominance are not yet behind us.

Instead, this listener found himself swept along with the sheer vigour and colour of the performances. The Britten began tentatively, with those angular waves of exposed high violin lines reflecting the waves engrained in the Hoop Pine wood of the walls of this classic shoe-box hall. (The Grainger connections were soon apparent; his Free Music was inspired by the waves lapping on the shores of Albert Lake, barely two kilometres from the Recital Hall.)

Indeed, throughout the entire concert, the middle and lower registers appeared to dominate: at times, the violins and upper woodwinds struggled in a blaze of activity and colour. On the whole, Davis seemed to aim for rhythmic volatility; the angular athleticism of his platform manner ensuring that all was secure rhythmically (it would be instructive to see these amazing young musicians tackle Stravinsky’s Le Sacre, as I heard their Sydney counterparts do a few weeks ago). The sweep and surge of Elgar’s long lines and sumptuous textures were sometimes lacking; the music could have breathed more, the tempi pulled back a few notches and phrases shaped with more rubato gestures.

The orchestra really came to its own in Holst’s brash and unabashed ride through the solar system. From the atavistic bombast of Mars to the spectral evanesce on Neptune, with gorgeous sounds coming from an off-stage female choir, Davis milked the music for all it was worth. (But where was Colin Matthews’s addition of Pluto; has the dwarf planet now lost its place in the solar system altogether?)

Davis produced a performance with broad brush-strokes, drawing on an abundance of youthful, seemingly inexhaustible energy. Further into his association with this orchestra, Davis will doubtless draw out more subtle and refined nuances as a greater variety of repertoire opens up for exploration.

What a pity the programme notes remained so earthbound, conveying little more than Wiki-like information about the composers, barely touching on the works themselves. In a university environment, musical performance and scholarship should go hand-in-glove.

Looming large, of course, over most dimensions of music at Melbourne University is the figure of Percy Grainger, whose exuberant and questing spirit animated almost every moment of this concert. It would be wonderful to hear Davis and his orchestra tackle some of the larger scale Grainger pieces, the In a Nutshell suite, and the like. For the moment, the very young relationship of Richard Davis and this young orchestra is off to an impressive and promising start.