Like the other musicians temporarily denied their Festival Hall residents' permit over the refurbishment period, the London Philharmonic Orchestra are travelling around more than usual. Their series of performances in Edinburgh, Birmingham and Dublin was by way of prelude to the 16-concert tour of America on which they are about to embark with their principal conductor Kurt Masur.

Violinist Anne-Sophie Mutter has nurtured a special relationship with the LPO, their sound apparently according with her preference for orchestras that drive like a Porsche. Perhaps aware that the acoustic of Birmingham's Symphony Hall would be good, the strings were in gleaming form and it was noticeable that Mutter's rapport with the violins helped mould the shape of Beethoven's Violin Concerto almost as much as Masur's conducting. Her interpretation of the first movement was measured. It enabled Masur to underline both the darker orchestral colouring and the element of foreboding in the recurring motif of repeated notes initially heard in the timpani. In this context, the forceful moments when Beethoven veers into another key made dramatic and structural sense, as did Mutter's unleashing of the bravura element in the cadenza. In the Larghetto, the violin's elegant variations were again carefully controlled, making the appearance of the rondo's theme sound almost rumbustious.

Masur chose to balance the concerto with Dvorak's Symphony No 8 in G. What emerged strikingly in the pairing of the two works here was the way in which both composers moved from major to minor tonality with poignant effect. The resonance of the G minor theme from Beethoven's finale with the dancing lyricism of Dvorak's scherzo in the same key was similarly revealing, but Masur and his players attacked the symphony's closing fanfares and trills with real glee.