Another year, another month, another Beethoven symphony cycle. Given the grip of conservative programming, there was nothing unusual here. But was John Eliot Gardiner conducting the London Symphony Orchestra on Tuesday, or was he in a boxing match?

The ferocious punch of the concert's first chord, opening the Symphony No2, suggested the latter. This is one of Beethoven's sunshine symphonies, yet here was Gardiner slugging out the notes, driving the phrasing hard, piling testosterone into every tutti. It was exhausting and not very pleasant.

Why this pummelling? Partly the effect of the Beethoven stereotype: Beethoven the revolutionary, always in strife. Another reason, I suspect, was a misalliance between Gardiner's period instrument practises and LSO musicians playing modern instruments. The teaming gave us extra decibels and heft, but we lost lightness and elegance. Launched on the symphony's unruffled larghetto, the LSO still weighed in with heavy accents, glowering brass, puncturing the sun with shadows. As for humour, Gardiner's thrusting pace in the finale strangled jokes at birth. This was a crude, heavy-handed performance.

By this time I needed a stiff drink. But there was no time: we were whipped straight away into the second Leonore overture. And here, happily, the concert turned the corner. Gardiner and the orchestra finally sounded in focus, taut and balanced. The slow introduction rumbled with genuine tension; the drama of Florestan and Leonore was never bullied, but simmered and shouted with a natural flow. This was Gardiner the opera conductor at work.

After the interval another symphony, and another “lightweight”, the Eighth. The boxing wasn't as pronounced this time; the allegro scherzando pranced along at a nice bantamweight, and the LSO horns painted the minuet's middle in fragrant colours. But outer movements were still imperilled by Gardiner's hard, hurtling pulse - a particular problem in the finale, where Beethoven's japes need crisp articulation and winking timing. More of Gardiner's Beethoven symphony cycle on February 7, with the Eroica. Another boxing match? Time will tell.

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