When Liszt hit upon the idea of depicting characters and events in music, he started a trend that is still going strong today. Nevertheless, he didn't always judge the balance between drama and music perfectly: his symphonic poem Hamlet - here receiving a rare airing from Mark Elder and the Hallé - was considered unperformable. It is easy to see why. Despite some compelling musical imagery, Hamlet feels uncomfortably disjointed. It is full of dramatic charge and peppered with meaningful pauses, but ultimately disorientating.

Among Liszt's heirs, Kodaly and Janacek rank among the most distinguished. That is partly thanks to the freshness of eastern European musical traditions and partly to the composers' instinct for parody and grotesquerie that prevents them from falling into cliches. Kodaly's humorous portrayal of the fraudulent hero Hary Janos, for example, is for the most part an affectionate display of military kitsch, ranging from marching toy soldiers in The Viennese Musical Clock to the gentle parody of a funeral march played on saxophone instead of trombones.

Though Janacek's Taras Bulba is a far darker work, it also trades in a form of folk kitsch, brutalising a mazurka as a hostile portrayal of triumphant Polish forces. The Hallé's warm, vibrant performance of the work was sensational, with some beautifully shaped oboe and cor anglais solos. Its radiant closing paean to Czech nationalism was superbly balanced.

There are plenty of violin concertos that reach out and grab the audience, but Bartok's Second draws you in gently, weaving a hypnotic web of sound. Viktoria Mullova's sensitivity to Bartok's palate of colours and moods - from rich earthiness to a haunting, pellucid delicacy - was as near to perfection as it is possible to get. Elder's and the Hallé's control of Bartok's vibrant orchestration, from slapped pizzicato and shimmering percussion to full-bodied splendour, gave Mullova all she needed to create an unforgettable performance.