CLASSICAL Viennese Classics/ Philharmonic Hall.

SCHOENBERG. The very name used to send people rushing away, fearful that atonality or serialism would offend delicate musical souls.

Now, this composer often fills concert halls. It's easy to see why. Forgetting the fascination of his groundbreaking later works, his early works used the rich, almost sickly-sweet language of the late Romantic. That was certainly the case at this weekend's RLPO concert where Vasily Petrenko conducted a spirited though perhaps slightly ragged performance of Schoenberg's Chamber Symphony No 1. In this work, the composer is almost laying out his manifesto for the future of music: chords constructed on fourths, whole tone scales challenging the very ideas of harmonic and melodic language. It's also something of a concerto for orchestra, with complex, challenging lines for many soloists and the RLPO rose to the occasion, though with reservations.

The other work in the programme was Mahler's Fourth Symphony, which could have been conceived in a wholly different world from the Schoenberg though their composition was only separated by seven years. This is a bright, often cheerful composition devoid of the introspection, even depression, for which Mahler is renowned. Of particular note were the brass, horns and woodwind principals, along with the leader of orchestra as well as, perhaps rather unusually, the harp.

It's also a work which changes tempo on practically every page of the score. The slow movement was especially intense, as was the pianissimo conclusion. As in many works of this period, Mahler calls for a soprano soloist in the finale, a reworking from his song cycle Des Knaben Wunderhorn. Elizabeth Watts avoided the dramatically operatic approach to this rather heartfelt finale but, at times, she felt a little overwhelmed. That said, though, it was an intense and satisfying performance.

GLYN MON HUGHES