This was the first of a pair of concerts presented under the title Discover Tchaikovsky - an odd choice given that Russia's most popular composer is hardly in need of "discovery" at all. The primary aim, it would appear, is to allow Michael Tilson Thomas to revisit works he championed when they were comparatively unfashionable, Manfred being chief among them. Tilson Thomas's recording of Tchaikovsky's Byronic symphony turned a generation on to its power and beauty when it was released in the 1970s.

Thirty or so years later, his interpretation remains revelatory, rooted in tragic anguish and effecting emotional catharsis in the listener. This was a performance of superb control and cohesion, sweeping away the objections that the score is diffuse or neurotically self-pitying. The opening movement was heavy with a sense of existential alienation and cosmic fury, its intensity reverberating on through the transient magic of the scherzo and the painful lyricism of the slow movement. At the close of the finale, the plunge into the major brought with it a sense of exhausted relief. The demands it makes on an orchestra are ferocious, but the LSO rose to its challenges with tremendous passion.

The first half of the concert failed to attain the same level of intensity. Vadim Repin was the soloist in a rather studied performance of the Violin Concerto that failed to engage until it reached the canzonetta. This was prefaced by The Storm, Tchaikovsky's overture to Ostrovsky's play. It's an early, uneven work, though the best of it is prophetic of Tchaikovsky's future greatness. Tilson Thomas couldn't disguise its flaws, and the sound was a fraction too brass-heavy.