Doubts are sometimes expressed, even in Mahlerian circles, about the artistic success of his Seventh Symphony. Faults have been found with its structure, the quality of its thematic material and its finale. But this account by the Philharmonia under Esa-Pekka Salonen made an impressive case for the work's integrity and imaginative power.

Salonen launched his international career in 1983 with a spectacular Festival Hall performance of Mahler's Third with this same orchestra. Although he has since specialised in more recent repertoire, he clearly continues to respond to Mahler's more progressive tendencies, which he highlighted in this performance of the Seventh.

The work's broad trajectory from darkness to light is shot through with nuances of ambiguous emotion, conveyed in the quirky instrumental writing and in the music's pattern of setting up a mood only to undermine or even contradict it. Balancing the often unblended scoring with great skill, Salonen was alert to every twist and turn in Mahler's enigmatic scheme, while the orchestra rose to the challenges of the writing with flair.

Earlier in the evening, a smaller group of Philharmonia players introduced three ensemble pieces by the 50-year-old Japanese composer Toshio Hosokawa. His works reveal a predilection for the most delicate sonorities, often involving colouristic effects that made use of experimental playing techniques. They can be troubled, as in the charged atmosphere of Drawing, inspired by the composer's dream of being in his mother's womb. Yet the most successful was the serene Singing Garden, whose translucent textures and sense of timeless motion were sensitively recreated by conductor Diego Masson's lightest touch.