Werk: Symphonie Nr. 4 in C-Dur (1947), Op.112

Gianandrea Noseda’s awareness of colour, texture and detail repays dividends in the symphony, whereas Simon Trpčeski’s absence of muscle and full-blooded Romantic sentiment does Brahms no favours in the concerto.

Alisa Weilerstein is a powerful soloist with The Cleveland Orchestra in Barber’s Cello Concerto, while a new work by Allison Loggins-Hull and a rarely-heard Prokofiev symphony are intriguing but less convincing.

The programme read a little like a musical version of Kim's Game: not one but two full-scale symphonies, the same number of prefatory pieces, and then a piano concerto to boot: a test for the audience as well as the orchestra. The principal connexion between the works – apart from their contemporaneity – was the celebrated conductor, Serge Koussevitsky.