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Infectious energy from musicians who breezed through a diverse and challenging programme without music stands or chairs, in which Benedict Mason displayed his originality.

As a title for the opening performance of MusicNOW’s 2013-2014 season, “Vaporized” is somewhat misleading. It comes from the evening’s first piece, and it makes for a tidy, catchy branding for a new music concert. Yet the other two works are steeped in a density and concreteness that are counterintuitive to the abstract, amorphous implications of that title.

The ability of musicians to take music from the past and present it in a new way gives an important sense of continuity that holds together our musical tradition, and this applies equally to performers and composers, as demonstrated this evening by Northern Sinfonia and their young guest conductor Ilan Volkov, in Hall One of The Sage Gateshead.