With its glittering piano part and delicately defined orchestral shapes and textures, Schoenberg's 1942 Piano Concerto is one of his most immediately accessible 12-tone works. But as with much of Schoenberg's music, it remains a tough sell at the box office even after 70 years. Even with the redoubtable Mitsuko Uchida as soloist, and bracketed by mainstream Brahms and Beethoven, there were plenty of empty seats in the hall for this relatively rare, but top drawer rendering.

In its construction, moods and pianistic gesture, though, the four movement concerto is riddled with reminders that Schoenberg saw himself as a traditionalist as well as an innovator. The classical tradition's imprint on his writing is never absent, even though the Concerto inhabits a wholly 20th-century soundworld. Uchida is in many ways its ideal interpreter, bringing to the Concerto the same clarity of articulation and driving engagement that characterises her Mozart and Beethoven alike. Her exquisite encore, the second of Schoenberg's Six Little Pieces Op 19, was a gem.

Esa-Pekka Salonen has bided his time as principal conductor of the Philharmonia before engaging with the earlier Viennese classics. Neither Beethoven nor Brahms has loomed large in his programming. That's all changing now. Salonen began with a fascinating performance of Brahms's Haydn Variations, displaying cool restraint, clean textures and avoiding orchestral mass. He allowed the woodwind colours full range; I hope he will bring a similar clarity to Brahms's symphonies before long.

For the moment, though, Salonen's focus is on the Beethoven symphonies. He ended with an impeccably executed rendering of the Seventh, which was nevertheless lacking in spirit. Salonen seemed inclined to hold back on emotion, particularly in the opening movement. But the second movement allegretto was beautifully phrased, and the final allegro hurtled with all the high-speed discipline anyone could want.