It is easy to understand why Esa-Pekka Salonen's attitude to Sibelius might be ambivalent. While all Finnish conductors are assumed to excel in the music of their country's greatest composer, having absorbed its essence since they were babes in arms, Finnish composers of Salonen's generation have had to work hard to establish their identities against the background of Sibelius's unique achievement. As a conductor and a composer, Salonen must have found it difficult to reach the right compromise between those tendencies.

Perhaps that dilemma explains the lack of real character in the second pair of concerts in his Sibelius cycle with the Los Angeles Philharmonic, which included the Third and First, followed by the Sixth and Fifth Symphonies. Though the orchestral playing was always very good, it was manicured rather than vividly characterised, while Salonen has yet to find the knack of making everything that happens in a Sibelius movement seem inevitable.

There were some powerful moments - the way in which Salonen moved through the gears in the outer movements of the Fifth was impressive - but there was much more that lacked real conviction. The most elusive symphony, the Sixth, lacked that quality of mystery, seeming fretful rather than poised, while the Third had been strangely rootless, never convincingly anchored in the emotional world that was unique to its composer.

Between the Sixth and Fifth Symphonies came a group of Sibelius songs, orchestrated by John Estacio and sung with compelling power and musical intelligence by tenor Ben Heppner. The novelty in the other concert was equally welcome. Karita Mattila was soloist in the orchestral version of Kaija Saariaho's Quatre Instants, settings of texts by Amin Maalouf. Their dramatic power over exquisite orchestral backdrops seems perfectly tailored to Mattila's histrionic abilities.