Stravinsky's Violin Concerto is one of his most rigorous neo-classical works, but Leonidas Kavakos's performance with the Gustav Mahler Jugendorchester turned it into a bravura showpiece. The concerto may be a refraction of baroque and classical models through Stravinsky's compositional kaleidoscope, but there was no trace of intellectual irony or distance in Kavakos's full-blooded interpretation, and he was supported by the orchestra's virtuosic accompaniment, conducted with wit and clarity by Ingo Metzmacher.

The first movement was a hurtling, non-stop Toccata, pitting the soloist against individual members of the orchestra, and featuring a playful duet with the first bassoon. Each of the two arias at the centre of the piece was seductively poised, but the second was especially moving, and ended with Kavakos's fragile melody suspended above delicate woodwind figuration and a weird, high double-bass note.

This vivid performance had the most exotic of settings in Metzmacher's programme, framed by Ravel's Tzigane and Rhapsodie Espagnole. Kavakos transcended the vertiginous technical difficulties of Tzigane's solo violin part, and made the piece more than a hollow virtuosic display. However, Metzmacher's performance of Rhapsodie Espagnole was still more convincing.

In their previous concert, the performance of Mahler's Fifth Symphony had sometimes sounded raucous and uncontrolled, but this was a meticulously prepared interpretation, sculpting the large-scale architecture of the piece while capturing the fantasy of Ravel's orchestration, like the solos for cor anglais and double bass. But every player contributes to this fabulous orchestra, and Metzmacher harnessed their individual and collective brilliance in the Suite from Stravinsky's Firebird, with a frenetic Infernal Dance and voluptuous Finale.