On the face of it, Daniele Gatti seems an unusual choice to conduct the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra. The Concertgebouw is widely regarded as one of the greatest of all orchestras, while Gatti is known primarily as a superlative orchestral trainer. But such a view limits our appreciation of him as an interpreter. His conducting has an immense seriousness that defines his strengths as well as his occasional weaknesses.

His programme opened with Schumann's Manfred Overture and closed with Tchaikovsky's Fifth Symphony. Each can seem depressive if not carefully handled. Gatti presented both as the product of a mature tragic vision, powerfully articulated and cogently expressed. The Manfred Overture, swerving between elation and despair, carried the kind of emotional charge more usually associated with the symphonies of Beethoven or Brahms than with Schumann. Tchaikovsky's Fifth, meanwhile, was implacably intense. Balancing volatility with control, Gatti ran the four movements together as a single unbroken span, drawing us with him on an immense emotional journey without respite.

In between, however, came Mendelssohn's Violin Concerto, which inhabited a lower inspirational level. The soloist was Vadim Repin, a superb technician who shares Gatti's seriousness. The fiery immediacy they brought to the first movement gave way to a rich, operatic lyricism in the central Andante. The finale, however, was curiously short on charm and wit.