High Romanticism and rebellion were the underlying themes of Tugan Sokhiev’s latest Philharmonia concert, a riveting effort that served as a reminder of what a fine conductor the young Russian has become of late. Beethoven, Liszt and Berlioz at their most iconoclastic formed the programme, all three benefitting from the mixture of passion and refinement integral to Sokhiev’s style.

The main work was Berlioz’s Symphonie Fantastique, its volatility underpinned by the subtlety of Sokhiev’s approach. The huge emotional lurch after the unusually breezy first appearance of the idée fixe immediately defined the psychological narrative as one of unstable desire for an unavailable object rather than one of consummation and betrayal. Sokhiev was particularly good at capturing the gathering unease of the opening movements – the tense elegance of the ball, the almost imperceptible souring of mood in the scene in the countryside. His extreme, violent way with March to the Scaffold, complete with the most sickening guillotine crash imaginable, left him too little room for manoeuvre in the Witches’ Sabbath, which didn’t quite reach the outer limits as it ideally should. But it was a strong interpretation, superbly played.

Beethoven was represented by Coriolan, Liszt by the Second Piano Concerto. Beethoven’s overture, performed on the grandest of scales, was remorseless in its intensity, logic and drama. Khatia Buniatishvili, a diva among pianists, was the soloist in the Liszt. It’s not his finest work: the innovation of its evolutionary, one-movement form is undercut by an occasional lack of thematic inspiration, above all in the big march that forms it climax. But it provides a superb showpiece for Buniatishvili, whose technical prowess, theatrical manner and innate glamour mark her out as a natural Liszt interpreter. Sokhiev, who conducted with devil-may-care panache, turns out to be an exceptional Lisztian, too.