The evening commenced with Edward Rushton's 'I nearly went, there' before moving on to the more familiar territory of Mendelssohn's violin concerto. The soloist was Janine Jansen and one could almost feel the LSO relax as they turned to this work, led by a safe star. For the encore, she elected to play with the leader, Roman Simovic - a nice touch.
After the interval, we were treated to Mahler's 5th, an extraordinary piece written at the time of his having survived a haemorrhage and fallen in love with his future wife. The movements move from the funereal to the joyful and the third movement stood out for me as encapsulating madness. Although 75 minutes in length, the time passed effortlessly, the old gentleman in front of me following it all in his copy of the score.
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