At first glance, The Ring: An Orchestral Adventure might suggest an arena spectacular at the O2 with Frodo, Gandalf and friends. But the work that concluded Neeme Järvi’s concert with the London Philharmonic Orchestra was something else: an extraordinary, bubbling cauldron of Wagner, containing 15 hours of the Ring cycle distilled into just over 60 minutes, with all singing removed.

The witch who concocted this witch’s brew in 1991 was the Dutch arranger Henk de Vlieger. According to his website, this was its 110th performance, and I can see why the work won’t lie down. All those familiar bleeding chunks, from the Rheingold prelude through the Valkyrie ride and the Magic Fire, through Siegfried’s horns and Forest Murmurs to Rhine Journey, Funeral and Immolation are blended into a colourful kaleidoscope that both respects the cycle’s narrative chronology and makes musical sense, though of the fidgety kind.

Progress is smooth but dizzying, though you can’t deny de Vlieger’s cleverness, and for any orchestra it’s a workout. Alberich’s anvils sounded as if they fell off a Christmas tree, but the horns displayed true theatrical magic, whooping their motifs victoriously over Wagner’s universe. Järvi belied his Calvinist-minister demeanour by tugging the LPO towards a final blaze of passion.

Earlier, another musical megalomaniac was heard from: Scriabin. This visionary Russian has no better modern interpreter than the pianist Yevgeny Sudbin. Scriabin’s Piano Concerto of 1896 found the musician a little less than his usual incendiary self, though it’s doubtful if any exertions could really make this click into clear focus. Rachmaninov-like gestures jostle with hints of modernities to come. Moments delight, but the whole wobbles.

Sudbin’s bright, dewy tone in the tender slow movement was delicious, though the best Scriabin colours came in the suave performance of the concert’s opener, Reverie, for orchestra alone — a curious little dreamscape of drifting winds, surging strings and just a hint of tuba.

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