In his 19 years with the St Petersburg orchestra, conductor laureate Yuri Termirkanov has streamlined its characteristically disciplined sound to such an extent as to run the risk of being wholly predictable.

Yet the opening work, Prokofiev's Classical Symphony, was a reminder of the masterly balance that allows Termikanov to exercise an iron grip and simultaneously achieve infinite flexibility. There is nothing innocuous about this symphony, and the precision with which it was executed brought out every flash of wit and irony with the lightest of touches.

Pairing it with Prokofiev's First Violin Concerto, also conceived (though not completed) in 1914, was fruitful, pointing up the extreme daring of its contrasts. The almost detached calm with which the demure Sayaka Shoji realised the piece's dreamy fantasy suggested at first that she might not deliver Prokofiev's angry dissonances and manic energy convincingly. But Shoji quickly proved herself to be a powerhouse, and gutsy with it. Thanks to an easy understanding with Termirkanov, this was both a dynamic and revealing performance.

After the spiky Prokofiev, the seamless flow of melody in Rachmaninov's Second Symphony emerged as an inspired and luxurious flood, deeply Russian in its inflection but never sentimental. While this orchestra plays with a single heart, its lustrous strings seem to embody its soul, and the effect is potent.

A mischievously smiling Termirkanov offered Elgar's Salut d'Amour as a chastely sweet first encore and the Trepak from Tchaikovsky's Nutcracker Suite was a predictably vodka-laced final flourish.