Daniel Harding is a uniquely talented conductor and like his guru, Simon Rattle before him, has already achieved huge success at the tender age of 31. His mannerisms and style are positively enchanting, if only in an aesthetic way - movement of liquid silk complemented by fingertips of balletic grace. He made several worthy marks on the interpretation in his work, generally commanded noble reverence for dynamics and set tempos for the third, Rondo Burleske, and fourth, Adagio, movements that had purpose and direction, though that could not be said in the case of the first movement, the tempi of which were desultory rather than deliberate.

The concert-master, Roland Straumer, didn't extend himself too much in his solos or in the role of leader, even in moments of the fourth movement where he may well have prevented untidiness in his own section. But even when this happened and Harding did not address it immediately, Straumer took no initiative whatsoever. Perhaps Straumer stands on the same side of the fence as those who say Harding is too inexperienced and immature to conduct orchestras such as this or the London Symphony, to whom he is principal guest conductor.

Compared to the near flawless performances by La Scala last October under Riccardo Chailly or the Pittsburgh under Leonard Slatkin, the previous chapters in the Sunday Times International Orchestral Series at the NCH, this wasn't the spectacular it should have been.

But with another young hotshot conductor, the Venezuelan Gustavo Dudamel, lined up to tour South America with the Dresden Staatskapelle later this year, you have to wonder if the management of the latter is concentrating more on PR stunts at the moment than on a desire to maintain the highest standards of this legendary orchestra.

High standards were not altogether evident at the NCH the night previous to the Dresden Staatskapelle either when violinist Gwendolyn Masin joined the RT�? NSO for their first symphony concert of the new year. Actually, high standards were not evident at all in the case of this performance of Mozart's violin concerto No 5, K219.

Masin was markedly flat to the orchestra's tuning for the first movement so the intonation suffered drastically. An admittedly notorious concerto for tuning, such matters did not improve when she retuned however, if in fact, in the slow movement, they did not actually worsen. In a very general sense, her interpretation sounded like Mozart à la Brahms - heavy and vociferous, with a vibrato that did not display one degree of change throughout the performance. It's best if I don't go on.

Due to an illness suffered by Gerhard Markson, his assistant Gavin Maloney was charged with conducting the Mozart (unlucky for some) but the RT�? NSO's principal conductor did appear for Mahler 4 in the second half. The symphony was clearly carefully rehearsed and Markson's ideas were well-communicated and received. But many of those same ideas lacked imagination or flambuoyance. His tempi in the first movement stifled much of the music's spontaneity and didn't laugh at each other as audaciously as they should.

Of course, another conductor wouldn't have appeared onstage at all, if they were as sick as Markson was reported to be, so hats off to him for showing dedication to his Mahler series.