Performer: Lorenzo Viotti

Piano icon Yuja Wang was an often self-effacing yet effective soloist in Rachmaninov’s neglected Piano Concerto no. 4. Poulenc’s 1948 Sinfonietta received its first Cleveland Orchestra performance since its 1949 US premiere here.

Exceptional singing, an auspicious conducting debut and a staging that is both sophisticated and emotionally involving make this production an unequivocal winner.

Viotti will return to La Scala to conduct Gounod's Roméo et Juliette in 2020. The programme this time round gave an indication of some of the positive qualities to expect. It also warned of some potential pitfalls.

This was less a concert of two halves than one of two tenors: able to dramatise the music of Puccini and Verdi far more effectively than his earlier Mozart, Flórez came alive.

Alex Ollé transportiert Puccinis unsterbliche Liebesgeschichte mit einer modernen und packenden Inszenierung in das 21. Jahrhundert.