When a conductor with Simon Rattle's rare vision and sense of particularity focuses on an undervalued composer, revelations result. This was the case last night in his all-Dvorak concert with the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment at the Barbican.

Dvorak's output may be patchy. His tendency to smile rather than frown in his music can appear to lack the fashionably requisite quota of angst. Yet at his soaring best, as in the two great works played here, he touches the heart.

Rattle has been tackling Dvorak with his Berlin Philharmonic players, who were reputedly delighted to discover that the Czech son of a butcher, at least in some respects, was quite like their beloved Brahms. Yet how different the Berliners' golden, limpid sound to the mellow, pliable energies of the OAE, playing with gut strings and softer-hued period woodwind.

They brought to the spirited Symphony No 6 in D major a pulsating energy and clarity that captivated from start to finish. The most ingenious movement is the third, a lurching, frenzied Furiant which contrasts with a surging, song-like Trio. This was an inspired, life-affirming account where risk and adventure counted for far more than a few ragged notes or missed ensemble.

Steven Isserlis was the phenomenal soloist in the Cello Concerto. Two weeks after the death of Rostropovich, who inhabited this work so generously (check it out on YouTube, currently rating 32,000 views), there was a quiet sense of Isserlis assuming the mantle of the world's foremost cellist. He may be more than 30 years younger, but such players only come once a generation.

His style is entirely different, capable of poetic reverie, nervous detail and daring conviction. Last night's partnership with Rattle sparked lyricism and fire in an altogether magical evening.