Young Armenian pianist Nareh Arghamanyan will have been so excited at the prospect of performing with one of the world’s greatest orchestras, but in the event this proved something of a disappointment.

Her generally fleet, gleeful and well-weighted pianism in Rachmaninov’s Rhapsody on a Theme of Paganini (though it almost ground to a halt in the famous 18th variation) was too often overshadowed by the heavy orchestral collaboration encouraged by Michael Seal, standing in at a week’s notice for conductor Vassily Sinaisky, who had been three-line whipped into returning to his Bolshoi duties in Moscow.

Seal’s rearrangement of the players’ placements may have exacerbated this imbalance.

Hyperactive body-language from the soloist was little help in communication, and her garishly-nuanced, glutinous baroque encore is best forgotten.

But in the second half of the evening things decidedly improved, Seal wisely presiding over an account of Elgar’s magnificent Second Symphony which allowed this expertly-scored music to speak for itself.

There were passages which genuinely moved, such as the sad stillness at the heart of the opening movement, and the Tristan-esque ending of the entire work.

And how good it was to hear the Symphony Hall acoustic restored to its enviable glory, after the grotesque blockings-off necessitated by the previous evening’s semi-staging of Duke Bluebeard’s Castle.

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