Elgar with all the emotions

Gil Sharman is in London for a long weekend, giving two concertos with the Philharmonia Orchestra - he plays the Barber Violin Concerto on Sunday - and a recital tonight at the Wigmore Hall with his wife Adele Anthony and a dozen of the Philharmonia's violinists.

Last night it was the turn of Elgar's Violin Concerto. With his 1699 Stradivarius, Shaham makes an extraordinarily rich and full sound. He is plainly still excited by the act of performing, smiling sometimes even when the music is unjoyous.

The technique is extraordinarily assured. Here, aided by David Zinman's astute conducting of an in-form orchestra, he made the work sound as wonderful as it is, projecting it with a range of generous emotions.

Yet I had always imagined this piece as more elusive, subtle and introspective than Shaham's vision allowed. Sometimes one could pinpoint details which made it otherwise. The soloist's countermelody at the beginning of the slow movement, for instance, was too heavily weighted, putting the orchestra firmly in the background when the balance should surely have been more equal. But this was his view, and it was a compelling one, even if it did not quite present the Elgar one thought one knew.

After the interval Shaham joined the audience to hear Zinman conduct a scintillating reading of Brahms's First Symphony. From the opening, where that long-held, throbbing low note played by timpani, double basses and the rest took on an unusually ominous power, he balanced and paced the work with telling insight.

Every section was on its mettle. There were impressive oboe and violin solos from Christopher Cowie and James Clark in the slow movement. But this was essentially a team effort, and the orchestra's determined unity enabled Zinman to power the symphony to a thrilling, transcendent conclusion.