Bernard Haitink and the Vienna Philharmonic ought to be an electric combination. He has a long association with the orchestra, and in Mahler's Ninth Symphony chose a work to which it could claim ownership, having given the premiere the year after the composer's death. This was the second of a London series marking Haitink's 75th birthday that will see him at the helm of five of Europe's great musical institutions. Perhaps some of the others will be more willing to mould themselves to Haitink's leadership; this particular performance told us more about the orchestra than the conductor.

There is, admittedly, a lot to say about this orchestra. Its trademark string tone is fabulous, lush and muscular. The distinctive wind sound was unmistakable here too - even though, with the section being around a third female, this famously nearly-all-male orchestra couldn't hide the fact that it was fielding deputies. The bassoons were appealingly raspy, the piccolo piercing enough almost to hurt the ears.

Haitink harnessed the potential these contrasting instruments offered for exploring the symphony's contradictions and rough edges; but if he wanted something more organic - or, indeed, more disciplined - the orchestra didn't always seem willing to give it. He is a clear conductor, yet there was a slight time-lag between the front of the violins and the back, which made some passages seem schmaltzy, and which at one point was so pronounced that it seemed a deliberate effect. And the wind and brass could have been more subtly dovetailed.

There was much to relish still, starting with the way Haitink built up the sparse layers at the very opening to form, almost before we realised, a rich, lilting theme. The clodhopping bierkeller dance in the second movement never lost momentum, the belligerent fugue of the third was well paced, and the first climax of the finale, growing upwards from strongly reverberating basses, brought a real frisson. Yet for a symphony about the passing sweetness of life - one which ends, tearjerkingly - the performance as a whole was stubbornly, surprisingly unmoving.