The dashboard is like a terrace, its upper, more distant layer containing an easy-to-focus-upon digital speedometer plus sequential lights to advise on economy and the impending rev limit, while the lower layer is dominated by a rev-counter dead ahead. An LCD information display hovers eerily over the rev-counter's centre, fuel and engine-temperature gauges peep out from behind, the whole lot bathed in a ghostly blue light and seemingly floating. "I was losing my frickin' mind over the last week, just thinking, 'This thing is going to be a travesty,' " he groans. His latest project, playing the lead in Tennessee Williams's The Night of the Iguana in the West End, has been dogged by off-stage dramas, including a flu-ridden leading lady and maintenance problems at the Lyric, which have resulted in previews opening six days behind schedule.

"You'd think we were doing that Scottish play," Woody Harrelson sighs, his piercing blue eyes widening in mock horror at the thought of a cursed play He could be forgiven for thinking so. Paul Beniston endured his trumpet's deconstruction with deadpan good grace, let it sing with uncanny finesse, and more than met Trpceski's challenge to an extra turn of speed at the end.. Simon Trpceski, the pianist, made his name with Rachmaninov, but he has impressed just as much with the wit and flair of Saint-Sa?, and for Shostakovich the two traits just about added up to perfection.He showed an identification with the music's essence that made it sound as though it was spontaneously coming into existence as you listened. Thanks to the soloists even more than the orchestra, it was the performance of the evening, if not the month.

Jurowski built a tautened phrasing together with the long crescendos in both the slow sections, and - harder to do - maintained the tension afterwards when the music quietened.Some finely judged touches of xylophone set off and punctuated the second of them. The performance's other highlight was the finale's diversity of rhythmic character, accumulating with unstoppable momentum and flair, though the ultimate, broader payoff didn't blaze as it can.As for humour, Shostakovich was your man this time, outcomposing Haydn in his Concerto for Piano and Trumpet with its alternation of the wry and the satirical. The sinuous intensity of the composing brought a direct, clearly balanced response from the performers. If only he'd stopped after the two good movements in the middle, a robust minuet and a sparky sprint that found the players at their keenest. The latter's vernacular Hungarian episodes made for an equally laboured link with Bartok, whose Music for Strings, Percussion and Celesta occupied the second half No problems about quality control here, though. In Haydn, he found the immediacy of response and freshness of detail that he hadn't always in Beethoven. This, too, in Haydn's most superficial symphony, the interminable No 60, called Il Distratto after the former theatre-music that pads it out to six movements, though it's equally suitable for the composer's state of mind in recycling material better trashed. If he keeps the LPO playing like this, he'll do the OAE out of its Glyndebourne job.

The Rearranger sounded almost as mighty ever.Touring until 13 December; www.ticketmaster.co.uk. Blink and you miss the change of orchestra. Vladimir Jurowski was resuming with the London Philharmonic Orchestra (LPO) where he left off a week earlier with the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment (OAE): a classical symphony with its period-style features intact. "Last time I was here, Dave Edmunds was chucking up in '73." He was just as playful with his material, allowing the crowd to sing much of the occasional Zep number.

The crowd welcomed new material, and were rewarded with a smattering of classics. "Going to California" and "What Is and What Will Never Be" were disarming examples of folk's impact on UK rock. At the end, Plant teased us with a couple of lines from "Hoochie Coochie Man" before he laid into a blistering "Whole Lotta Love". His voice had lost its paint-stripping qualities, and the trousers were not as tight round the crotch, but his mane was full, and figure trim.Also evident was his dry Brummie humour. Not to be upstaged, and clearly enjoying his new outfit, the elder statesman was in imperious form. Now 90 dates into a tour to promote songs they wrote together, Plant and band were one tight, celebratory unit.