A PROVOCATIVE duality lay at the heart of the Scottish Chamber Orchestra's Mozart 250 concert on Friday night and it did not rest in the intelligent and logical coupling of works by Stravinsky and Mozart that comprised the programme. Rather, the collision (for so it seemed) stemmed from radically different approaches to the two piano concertos by Mozart that represented the core of the programme: the sunny A major concerto K488 and its darker, more turbulent sibling, the D minor concerto K466.

The profoundly differing perspectives on the concertos taken by pianist/director Piotr Anderszewski were presumably intentional, so consistent was each; but where the D minor concerto performance hit the mark as far as the character of the music was concerned, from its stealthy and stormy shadows to the shafts of wit and sunlight in the finale, the Polish pianist's interpretation of the radiant A major concerto seemed almost to miss the point.

Sure, the playing was pristine, pellucid and super-sophisticated, but Anderszewski's insistence on beauty of line rather than structure and momentum, along with mannered phrasing, exaggerated punctuation and the teasing of every ounce of prettiness from each note, meant that the concerto dragged its heels and lacked vigour and sparkle.

The SCO, while matching the sensitivity and polish of the pianist in its accompaniment to the concertos, came into its own with former leader and guest director Alexander Janiczek in the two works by Stravinsky that opened each half of the concert.

As vibrant and bracing as the performance of Pulcinella was, the SCO's dazzling account of the Concerto in D, with its spicy flavours and stimulating, spiky, assymetrical rhythms, comprehensively stole the show.