Anyone at Valery Gergiev's first concert as principal conductor of the London Symphony Orchestra could not fail to be struck by the air of myth-making that hung over the proceedings. Works based on Russian legends dominated the programme, underscoring the point that the maestro's status is, in some quarters, already considered to be legendary.

How the partnership will develop - and whether the Gergiev myth will prove sustainable - remains to be seen. In this instance, both he and the LSO took a while to strike form. Gergiev opened with Stravinsky's brief, hushed cantata The King of the Stars, its nebulous mysticism undermined by some effortful singing from the LSO Chorus. Thereafter, however, brutality reigned with Prokofiev's noisy Scythian Suite, a performance of mechanistic exactitude, though a crepuscular poetry was discernible in those rare moments when Prokofiev turns down the volume. The violence continued with Stravinsky's Concerto for Piano and Wind Instruments. Alexander Toradze was the heavy-handed soloist, ensuring that convulsive brooding replaced neo-classical suavity.

After the interval, however, came Stravinsky's Firebird, and scepticism was promptly brushed aside. Gergiev never lost sight of the score's epoch-making radicalism, ushering us into a soundscape in which beauty and savagery were frighteningly entwined. The playing was spine-tingling, and the orchestral colours whirred and fused with kaleidoscopic brilliance. A great performance: "magic" is, for once, an entirely appropriate word with which to describe it.