Mahler's Tenth Symphony, in Deryck Cooke's persuasive performing version, has become a rite of passage for young British conductors. It was one of Simon Rattle's calling cards when he started his stellar rise; Mark Wigglesworth conducted it excellently when he was working with the BBC orchestra in Wales; and this was the second time that Daniel Harding has tackled it in London in the past year. Harding's earlier performance involved the London Philharmonic, but this one was with the London Symphony; it was his first Barbican appearance since the announcement of his appointment as the LSO's chief guest conductor for the 2006-07 season.

Yet the Tenth is not young man's music: it is one of the most searingly personal documents in the symphonic literature, a confessional into which the composer channelled all his fears about his own health and his wife's infidelities. Much of that anguish is concentrated in the first of the five movements, and it is easy to understand why some of the greatest Mahlerians - Abbado and Haitink, for instance - have refused to conduct Cooke's edition of the full work. The opening Adagio can stand alone as one of the most extraordinary achievements in Mahler's entire output.

Unfortunately, the opening was the least convincing part of Harding's reading. It lacked coherence, with no sense of an unbroken line leading inevitably to the climax of its huge nine-note chord, so the shattering effect of that moment was diminished. When the chord returns at the watershed of the finale, Harding managed it much more effectively. By then, he had the measure of the whole work - the three central Scherzos had been sharply characterised, the otherworldly opening to the finale carefully stage-managed - but the orchestral playing had not improved. The thin string tone and moments of sourness in the wind chords during the final pages were not what you expect from the LSO.