A BUSTLING performance of the delicious Overture to Mozart’s opera, the Marriage of Figaro, opened the Vienna Tonkunstler’s concert, conducted by their music director Yutaka Sado.

Eminent Canadian pianist, Angela Hewitt, stamped her personality on Beethoven’s intensely lyrical Piano Concerto No 4 in G. Hewitt’s opening chord immediately provided a glimpse of the revealing interpretation about to unfold.

Beethoven’s majestic first movement cadenza, with Hewitt’s mercurial finger-work and consummately shaded dynamic contrasts was pure, sublime poetry. An absence of string vibrato heightened the interplay between orchestra and pianist in the slow movement.

A brilliant cascade of notes in the 3rd movement cadenza ushered in the scintillating final coda. Hewitt’s encore exuded unalloyed joy - the Gigue from Bach’s Partita No 5 - in which the composer goes to town with an exhilarating double fugue.

Yutaka Sado’s firm approach propelled the opening Allegretto movement of Sibelius’ Second Symphony; tension-building pizzicati strings fuelled the sense of expectation. Compared to the St Petersburg Philharmonic in this Hall last month, the string tone is not as luxuriant, but intonation is equally flawless. The emotional impact of the big romantic themes might have been enhanced by less rigid tempi. Nonetheless, this was a thrilling interpretation of Sibelius’ most popular symphony.

Sado’s carefully layered build-up to the final peroration - crowned as it was by the incandescence of the brass fanfares - ensured a crowd pleasing climax. The Andante Cantabile from Tchaikovsky’s String Quartet No 1, arranged for string orchestra, was the much appreciated if somewhat calming encore.