This was the first of the London Symphony Orchestra's strangely titled "Pure" series, the idea being that each concert is given over to the works of a single composer. In this instance, Dvorak was the composer in question, and the concert was originally planned as a vehicle for the LSO's principal guest conductor Daniel Harding. His withdrawal, however, led to his replacement by Michal Dworzynski, and also to a change of programme, with the Eighth Symphony substituted for the originally scheduled Slavonic Dances.

Winner of last year's Donatella Flick conducting competition and now the LSO's assistant conductor, Dworzynski is potentially a force to be reckoned with. The evening began with the Othello overture: some moments of imprecise ensemble betrayed a hint of nerves at the start, though he gradually settled into an account of the piece that was beautifully shaped, sensual and nostalgic. The Eighth Symphony, meanwhile, was all sweeping grandeur and heart-on-sleeve emotionalism, shot through with moments of fiery aggression and dynamic elation.

The centrepiece was the rarely played Piano Concerto with Pierre-Laurent Aimard as soloist. Written in 1876, shortly after the death of Dvorak's daughter Josefa, it's a huge work, by turns unwieldy and startling. Soloist and orchestra function as a single unit, rather than being placed in dramatic juxtaposition, and some pianists have consequently considered it ungrateful. Using a score rather than playing from memory, Aimard attacked the outer movements with restrained fury, and played the sorrowing central Andante with exquisite limpidity. That the jaunty, repetitive finale seemed over-long was Dvorak's responsibility rather than Aimard's or Dworzynski's. The great passages earlier on, in which the turbulence subsides and simple, nursery rhyme-like melodies take over, were almost intolerably poignant.