Luke Bedford's new orchestral work Rode with Darkness - here receiving its world premiere - brought a fresh energy to the time-tested concept of a musical journey. Its trajectory from static soundscape to a pulsating climax wasn't novel, but it was shaped with confidence and skill. In some respects the shift felt like a journey from one style to another: the first half of the work has an especially strong affinity with the neo-romantic style of the Ukranian composer Valentin Silvestrov. But the coherence of Bedford's orchestral writing and the static nature of both the reflective and energetic sections means that what could have felt like two distinct halves instead merged persuasively into a whole.

Any performance in which conductor and soloist are perfectly matched is something special. Mark Elder and soloist Isabelle van Keulen played Elgar's violin concerto with far more energy and brightness than is often heard, but didn't sacrifice any of its heart. Van Keulen's taut musical intelligence and vivid sound, combined with a fine instinct for the tender, searching quality of this music, found sympathetic partners in Elder and the Hallé: the close of the slow movement and the re-entry of the orchestra after the finale cadenza were magical.

Elder did something similar with the Largo of Shostakovich's Sixth Symphony, pushing along its weighty Bach-like counterpoint as though determined not to let it drag. As with the Elgar, the result made sense without sacrificing the qualities that make it special: the frozen, shimmering central section didn't lose its eerie stillness, nor did the opening section any of its stark grandeur. Both scherzi were beautifully played; the second - a defiantly upbeat, circus knees-up - had exactly the right balance of control and manic vulgarity.