Responsive, agile SSO under conductor Vasily Petrenko

Few things seem to connect Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky's lush string serenade, Manuel de Falla's atmospheric Andalusian postcard Noches en los Jardines de Espana and Ludwig van Beethoven's elemental, propulsive Seventh Symphony.

- Geoffrey Lim

All, however, received compelling, vigorously executed performances under the Singapore Symphony Orchestra (SSO) and its magnetic Russian guest conductor Vasily Petrenko.

The implausibly youthful Petrenko, the music director of the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra in London, is renowned for his performances of Russian music. And the Tchaikovsky, which opened the programme, was a highlight: romantic without being excessively emotive, equally at ease in the lilting melancholy of the second movement waltz and the martial verve of the last movement's theme russe.

String balances were perfectly calibrated and the SSO played with unusual responsiveness and agility.