Tadaaki Otaka has always brought out the best in the BBC National Orchestra of Wales. His visits as conductor laureate are now infrequent, which is all the more regrettable when the respect he commands is audible in the discipline and polish of the orchestral sound.

With Otaka, musical authority is perfectly balanced with humility; his overriding concern is to serve the composer. This was particularly evident in Bartok's Concerto for Orchestra, the main work in this programme. It may be a great orchestral showcase, and Otaka certainly elicited some very fine playing here, but rather than emphasise the pyrotechnics and the surface brilliance of the piece, he was intent on reaching the heart of the music. There is something miraculous in the way that Bartok, exiled in America and desperately ill with leukaemia, was able to respond to Serge Koussevitsky's commission for the concerto, and this performance seemed to reflect the life force that Bartok was summoning as well as the complex emotions it embraces.

A compelling energy was also palpable in Otaka's Beethoven. Gianluca Cascioli was the soloist in the Piano Concerto No 4 in G major and, while his natural inclination was to a Chopinesque interpretation, fluid and romantic, Otaka provided the rhythmic and architectural structure that prevented it from being too flaccid.

Honegger's dreamy languorous Pastoral d'Eté was a curious choice for the opening work. Although elegantly played, with a central dance section ostensibly offering a lively counterpart to Bartok's folk rhythms, it still felt out of season. With attention-seeking coughers constantly making their presence felt, it was never going to be possible to imagine it being anything other than winter.