The Philharmonia’s Vienna series, extended over nine months, is delivering such overwhelming performances of masterpieces of early modernism under Esa-Pekka Salonen that one is grateful for the time to recuperate.

Last night’s poleaxing account of Mahler’s Sixth Symphony, the “Tragic”, was no exception, and as if that weren’t enough, it was preceded by a reading of Berg’s Violin Concerto to die for.

Soloist Christian Tetzlaff set the tone of the latter with his quietly plangent opening solo, for which Salonen provided an eloquently restrained backdrop. All this was a prelude for the catastrophe of the concerto’s second part, which registered all the more forcefully.

But there was delicacy to come in the shape of the interpolated Bach chorale, so exquisitely voiced by the Philharmonia woodwind that it might have been an organ playing.

If all such dodecaphonic music were played so beautifully, it would in no time become as popular as Schubert. Well, perhaps not, but it might help to rescue the term “atonal” from the lexicon of invective.

The opening movement of Mahler’s Sixth is clearly understood by Salonen as not so much a funeral march as a pitched battle between life and death.

His fiercely insistent tread and crisp staccato percussion timbres evoked a world of hectic strife and ghostly apparitions. The calmer music associated with the composer’s wife, Alma, offered a stark contrast, though the major-key coda was no easy victory.

Hard edges, vivid colours and extreme dynamic contrasts also characterised the Scherzo, revealed by Salonen as a clash of old-world nostalgia and modern-day frenzy.

The Andante was properly a haven of tranquillity. Indeed, so ardent was its lyricism at climactic points that one wondered whether Salonen had developed a sweet tooth during the years of his proximity to Hollywood.

Finally the grim conclusion: pitiless, terrifying, unrelenting in its intensity. The only ray of light was the news that this stupendous performance was recorded and will be broadcast on Radio 3 next Tuesday at 7pm.