Performer: David Robertson

David Robertson makes a successful debut with the Toronto Symphony Orchestra, substituting for Michael Tilson Thomas, in a hyper-romantic programme of Berg and Mahler.

Guest conductor David Robertson led ponderous accounts of the "Pastoral" Symphony and Haydn's Cello Concerto no. 1, alongside a new work by the promising American composer Reena Esmail.

The New York Philharmonic features two early Ligeti works, a new concerto for Yefim Bronfman by Elena Firsova, and Brahms' Serenade no. 1.

David Robertson's program combines a passionate and multilayered account of Bartók's Second Violin Concerto with early, rarely played works by Ligeti and Rachmaninov that challenges assumptions about their composers.

Leading the Czech Philharmonic in a sampling of works by Charles Ives, Robertson built a bridge between Old World sensibilities and contemporary musical ideas.

Richard Jones' setting is superb in its bare minimalism, but he pays great attention to all the psychological nuances in Janáček's opera.