Norwegian pianist Leif Ove Andsnes is only in his early 30s, but he must have played Grieg's Piano Concerto more times than he can remember: it is arguably the most famous piano concerto in the repertoire, and by Norway's most celebrated composer. But in his performance with Myung-Whun Chung and the London Symphony Orchestra, he made the piece feel fresh. From the way he voiced the very first chord, his interpretation sparkled with insight and clarity, breathing new life into this warhorse.

Instead of celebrating the concerto's opportunities for virtuosic display, Andsnes focused on the lyrical heart of the concerto, and even the opening movement was memorable for the delicacy of its melodies rather than its barnstorming technical challenges. The second movement was a single, song-like sigh, and the finale was a succession of individual episodes, each more affecting than the last, until the final apotheosis of the movement's most lyrical theme. Andsnes revealed the unique workings of this concerto: instead of a seamless musical progression, the piece was a carnival of dramatic characters, each brilliantly realised by the lucidity of his playing.

Chung's performance of Mahler's Fifth Symphony created a different kind of lyrical intensity, a single line that connected the vast structures of the first two movements, and made sense of music that can seem diffuse and overwrought. But his structural sensibility hampered the huge scherzo at the centre of the symphony. Even if the LSO's playing was consistently engaging, Chung did not dramatise the range of music that Mahler uses in this movement, from rustic melodies to intimate, reflective passages. He turned the adagietto into a lament that almost stalled at his turgid tempo, and though the finale was dazzlingly energetic, he revealed the intellect rather than the ecstasy in Mahler's chaotic counterpoint.