Vladimir Jurowski chose his inaugural concert as principal conductor of the London Philharmonic to tackle Mahler with the orchestra for the first time. He began at the very beginning, with the cantata Das Klagende Lied, which Mahler completed at the age of 20, and later described as his Opus 1. Jurowski elected to conduct the original version, with its lavish scoring, including six harps and an off-stage military band, and the restored first part of the work, Waldmarchen, which Mahler discarded when he revised the work in the 1890s.

With its supernatural narrative and vividly descriptive orchestral writing, Klagende Lied is the nearest to a dramatic work that Mahler ever completed, and Jurowski's own dramatic instincts responded keenly to its blazes of theatricality, though what is most striking about the work is how identifiably Mahlerian so much of it is. There are inevitable echoes of the German tradition he inherited, of Weber and Wagner particularly, but also teasing anticipations of what was to come in the Knaben Wunderhorn works and the apocalyptic visions of the Second Symphony. Jurowski galvanised both orchestra and singers: there was wonderfully secure brass playing, and full-blooded contributions from the LPO Choir and the team of soloists, especially baritone Anthony Michaels-Moore and treble David Christopher Ragusa.

Before the Mahler came the prelude to the first act of Wagner's Parsifal, a rapt, contained performance, which made one long to hear Jurowski unfold the whole music drama, and Berg's Three Orchestral Pieces, which took longer to catch fire - there were a few bits of smudgy wind chording in the first piece, and the characterisation of the waltz-haunted Reigen was low-key - but which by the final march had become a convincing, tragic statement.

· Broadcast on Radio 3 tonight.

· This article was amended on Saturday September 22 2007. The above review of the London Philharmonic Orchestra's performance of Mahler's Das Klagende Lied said that Dominic Fernandes sang treble; in fact it was David Christopher Ragusa. This has been corrected.