Tchaikovsky's First Symphony was once a rarity outside retrospectives of the composer's work. Many deemed it tentative - a score of great charm but little depth. Of late, however, such criticisms have been dismissed. More and more conductors have taken to the piece, Vladimir Jurowski among them, and his performance with the LPO was remarkable in its brilliance and intensity.

Jurowski delved beneath its surface to uncover both the subtleties of Tchaikosvky's orchestration and its links with his later works. One was repeatedly struck by the tensions and resolutions in the woodwind writing, with the flutes and bassoons underpinning the drama with their ceaseless dialogues and arguments. The depressive undertow, invariably associated with mature Tchaikovsky works, was also very much present in the sense of terrible loneliness that pervaded the slow movement. If the work has a flaw, then it comes in the finale, with its equation of assertion with cumulative repetition. Jurowski couldn't quite disguise the dip in Tchaikovsky's inspiration at this point, though the closing bars were formidable in their impact.

One wished, however, that the rest of the concert had been of comparable quality. Jurowski seemed ill at ease with Haydn, whose 49th Symphony, La Passione, intended for performance on Good Friday, was all too frequently sluggish, rather than taut and austere. Mozart's E flat Sinfonia Concertante for Violin and Viola, though not ideal, was more assured, with athletic outer movements, and a graciously melancholy Andante. The soloists were the violinist Baiba Skride and viola player Isabelle van Keulen. Van Keulen's intonation was occasionally suspect, though the weight of her playing was a superb foil for Skride.