Earlier, a gracefully shaped performance of Haydn's Symphony No 8 preceded Nielsen's clarinet Concerto in which Michael Collins was the excellent soloist.

Mr. Jordan conducted a spacious and tellingly shaped performance.

He burrowed deep to come up with a dexterous, shaped performance that was both sublime and a murderously hostile star turn: a full-blooded parody of his former partner, Dean Martin.

Mr. Rilling found a fine balance between the score's contrasting sections of devotional sobriety and ecstatic celebration, and drew a beautifully shaped performance from the chorus and orchestra.

The Emerson String Quartet, joined by Alvin Brehm, gave it a beautifully blended and shaped performance last Monday evening.

That said, it was hard to resist Mr. Conlon's impassioned, tautly shaped performance, which he conducted from memory.

They may have been saving their steaminess for the Dvorak, which they gave a sweet-toned, beautifully shaped performance.

But Veronica Lynn used her height for a beautifully shaped performance as the Queen of the Dryads.

The orchestra under Andrea Quinn - who otherwise contributed deftly shaped performances, especially of the concluding Bizet - sounded accurate, if not quite ideally fierce.

This was not necessarily bad; in the Mozart, his micromanagement yielded a gracefully shaped performance that breathed naturally and projected grandeur without seeming blowzy.