Oliver Knussen's repertoire as a conductor has generally been shaped by the same parameters as his development as a composer - a historical sweep that starts where modernism began and follows that line right through to the present day. But though the possibility of a Knussen performance of, say, the Unfinished Symphony still seems remote, he does turn his attention to the 19th century occasionally: a disc of him conducting Mussorgsky is about to be released, and with the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra in the Symphony Hall he prefaced works by Colin Matthews and Stravinsky with two pieces of Berlioz.

Knussen's treatment of both the Roman Carnival Overture and the Royal Hunt and Storm was typically forthright. The overture had a bright, slightly brittle finish, with the percussion supplying the driving force, while the extract from The Trojans played down its erotic, languorous aspects in favour of something darker.

Technically The Rite of Spring was not so convincing however, and it took a while - most of the first part, in fact - for the performance to settle down. It never attained a real physical presence, however, and was best admired for its illumination of passing ideas that many conductors overlook. Knussen had lavished equal care on the orchestral contribution of Matthews' Second Cello Concerto as well, five movements in a single span first performed by Rostropovich and the LSO in 1996. Here the soloist was the CBSO's principal cellist Ulrich Heinen, who may have lacked the Russian's depth of tone for the framing Declamation and Resolution, but more than compensated with his assurance in the pair of Songs Without Text; the orchestra takes the spotlight in the eruptive violence of the central Scherzo, and there Knussen kept it on a tight leash.