At the end of this concert conductor Andris Nelsons stilled the enthusiastic applause which had been going on for several minutes on both sides of the platform, and spoke emotionally to the audience.
"I want you to continue to support this wonderful orchestra in this wonderful hall and come to concerts at least once a month!" he declared.
Some of us pondered whether second thoughts about his move to Boston are creeping into his head. Blue-rinses are very rare in Birmingham's musical circles.
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The CBSO is currently playing to extraordinary standards, despite fielding substitutes and trialists in the wind and brass sections.
It was only some sluggish rather than sparkling woodwind articulation in the first movement of an otherwise both fizzing and poised Prokofiev "Classical" Symphony which detracted from Nelsons' affectionate interpretation.
We ended with a work from a few years earlier, Stravinsky's score for the ballet Petrushka.
Nelsons' footwork was indeed balletic (for a big man he is very light on his feet), and he drew a reading which was now buzzing, now subtle, wonderfully shaded and rhythmically vibrant.
The sequence of dances in the final tableau emerged as noble as those in Wagner's Meistersinger (the dour Stravinsky would surely hate that comparison), and instrumental solos throughout added characterful contributions: Marie-Christine Zupancic's fey flute, Rachael Pankhurst's lugubrious cor anglais, Jonathan Holland's incisive trumpet, and Ben Dawson's vivid piano.
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And that piano had just beforehand delivered Lars Vogt's no-nonsense, pellucid and elegant account of Mozart's last piano concerto, no.27 K595.
Vogt brought both crystalline clarity and well-weighted chording to his performance, confident enough in his accompanists to be able to add a discreet element of rubato where appropriate.
Less is more. No affectation here, just a pure love of this otherwordly music, communicated by all concerned.
But please can we have a moratorium on encores?