The Bavarian Philharmonic KlangVerwaltung (a word that translates roughly as "sound administration"), to give it its full title, was founded, according to its programme biography for this UK debut concert, in 1997 to realise the unique musical vision of its conductor, Baron Enoch zu Guttenberg. A trained conductor and composer as well as an aristocrat and an environmentalist, Guttenberg is clearly an individualist, and the characteristics of this elite orchestra (as the programme again describes it) can surely be ascribed to its chief conductor.

Its most curious feature as displayed in this evening of just two works - Mozart's Piano Concerto No. 21 and Bruckner's Fourth Symphony, the Romantic - is that, while not a period-instrument band, its string players avoid vibrato almost entirely. The effect, especially in the long lines of the Bruckner, was unpleasantly glassy; it also showed up weaknesses of intonation. Given that orchestras in most other countries would die for the depth and richness characteristic of the strings of the best German outfits, this seems a strange affectation. However, most of the players in the band are young and their general standard high, though the woodwind are undistinguished and the brass less than impregnable.

Guttenberg's heavily gestured platform manner often seemed to follow the music rather than lead it. The Mozart was precise but brittle and charmless, and even Freddy Kempf's scrupulous playing lacked sensitivity on this occasion, though he floated the melody of the slow movement with grace. The Bruckner was poorly balanced and there was little sense of its shape, either locally or over a wider span. The finale, which unless delivered with the most careful attention is liable to end up in pieces on the floor, did just that.