Perfection in performance is something all too rare these days, though Mitsuko Uchida's concert with the Chamber Orchestra of Europe just about achieved it. The programme consisted of two Mozart piano concertos, directed by Uchida from the keyboard, flanking the orchestral version of Schoenberg's Ver-klärte Nacht, dauntingly performed conductorless. All three were characterised by a breadth of expression and a technical exactitude remarkable and unique.

In the gaunt C minor Concerto, K491, the emphasis fell on structural innovation as well as emotional resonance. The outer movements were uncompromising in their severity, as assertion gave way to exhausted meditation. The central larghetto attained genuine sublimity. The COE, meanwhile, stressed the daring of Mozart's orchestration, above all the way he isolates the woodwind from the rest of the players, turning them into an effective third voice in the work's drama. The A major Concerto, K488, is in some respects the emotional opposite of its successor. In Uchida's performance, time seemed to stand still in the reflective, yet troubled central adagio. The opening movement was all serene elegance, while the finale combined brilliance with the kind of emotional elation one associates more with Beethoven than Mozart.

Schoenberg's great study of sexual anxiety and emotional reconciliation, meanwhile, was equally spellbinding. The performance, directed by the COE's leader Alexander Janiczek, was uncompromising in its directness. Speeds were swift and the orchestral sound was austere, in marked contrast to most interpretations, where there is a preference for sonic sloshiness and a tendency to dawdle. The resulting clarity was breathtaking, as was the sense of the music living and breathing as an organic whole.