The affinity that Shostakovich felt for Mahler bordered on hero-worship and, since the parallels between them are arguably best heard in Mahler's Seventh Symphony, inviting Vassily Sinaisky, a dynamic interpreter of Shostakovich, to conduct this colossal work with the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra was an inspired choice.

Sinaisky indeed showed his instinctive affinity with Mahler, controlling the massive orchestral effects with flamboyant ease, yet also capturing the essential details of Mahler's score along with the irony and the ecstasy. Here, there was often a frisson of danger in the manic, wildly fluctuating moods, but Sinaisky's tight rein ensured that the senses were constantly excited without being totally overwhelmed. It was in achieving this perilous balance that another resonance chimed: immediately outside Symphony Hall, the flashing lights of the giant ferris wheel turned in a giddy whirl and strains of the hurdy-gurdy music of the German Christmas market pointed up a tradition which was as much part of Mahler's palette of colour as the vivid sounds of nature and the Alpine summers.

Sinaisky realised the work's contrasts with a virtuosic precision. The merest mercurial movement ensured a sudden bristling of tension or an exaggerated swagger, and transferring the baton frequently to his left hand permitted lightning but deeply expressive gestures that immediately elicited an eloquent response from his players. The CBSO were clearly in their element being stretched to the limit and, in the final tumult of bells, there was an audible elation. But it is in the moments of greatest restraint that the genius of Mahler is perceptible and it was in the intimate exchanges of the fourth movement and its evocative Nachtmusik that the intensity at the heart of this work emerged most strikingly.