Brahms' monumental First Piano Concerto came out of an earlier symphony the young composer was afraid to write, and it can be a treacherous piece to perform. Treated as a mature work, with every gesture weighted, the effect easily becomes overwhelming.

Christoph König and the BBCSSO did not labour over the monumental structure of the first movement, but allowed themselves to be swept along by it. No attempt was made to reconcile the first solo entry with the grandiose orchestral introduction; here, Nelson Goerner's rhapsodic first entry was a separate entity. The moment when it came together with the crystalline brilliance of Goerner's hurtling, octave passagework seemed truly startling as a result. With the hymn-like quality of the slow movement brought out in full, this was an attractively impetuous, yet never brutal, vision of Brahms.

The concerto was the final work of the second programme in the BBCSSO's short Bartók series, a concert that turned out to be an immeasurable improvement on the first. König succeeded where, last week, Ilan Volkov had not, in tempering the discipline of the BBCSSO's playing with warmth of sound and vitality. On this occasion, Bartók was cast only in the supporting role, but as a concert-opener his Dance Suite was pleasingly punchy and acerbic. König's flexible shaping of tempos imbued the piece with the swagger of Bartók's folk arrangements.

With Beethoven's Second Symphony preceding Brahms, the Bartók didn't appear to have much connection with the rest of the programme. Yet König's Beethoven turned out to be a pleasure: sprightly, but with a depth of sound that made it more than a lightweight approach.