There was a locomotive feel to the first half of the London Symphony Orchestra’s last Sydney concert under its Russian maestro Valery Gergiev.

It started with the effervescent trumpet fanfare of Shostakovich’s Festive Overture, written for the Bolshoi in1954 to celebrate the anniversary of the October Revolution. Over the next six minutes each department of the LSO – burnished brass, polished woodwind, crisp percussion and energetic but precise strings – were given free rein under Gergiev’s minuscule baton and dancing hand gestures.

If, like me, you hadn’t been fortunate enough to witness the first two concerts of this tour, this was Gergiev and his wonderful band setting up their stall in spectacular fashion under 33-year-old leader Roman Simovic, whose uncontrollable hair and snazzy black suede boots proclaim that this is not your conventional concertmaster. The railroad momentum faltered briefly when Gergiev started to come back for a second ovation, realised that there was a diminuendo in the applause and made a hasty retreat.

No wonder the audience were impatient for up next was the conductor’s favourite pianist Denis Matsuev, nicknamed “the Siberian bear”. True he has the face of greco-roman wrestler, but the also finesse of a chess grandmaster when he needs...