As June gives way to July, classical music in London slowly grinds to a halt in preparation for the Proms onslaught that starts in a fortnight.

Yet, there are still gems to be had. This performance by the Philharmonia Orchestra brought its South Bank season to a close but there was no sense of end-of-term laxness.

Beethoven’s overture to Goethe’s play Egmont immediately established a mood of silken elegance mingled with ominous drama. To follow, Mozart’s last piano concerto, No 27. The soloist was Maria João Pires, a consummate Mozartian who invariably serves the music with modesty and grace.

As conductor Christoph von Dohnányi took his players through a pacy account of the introduction, she sat at the piano like a dutiful child waiting for permission to display her party trick.

The sense of anticipation was palpable but when at last she delivered her first notes, an electronic chiming went off in precise synchronisation. Pires soldiered on, although the abominable interruption returned several times, an unfortunate blemish on an impeccable performance.

The rhythmic intricacy and delicacy of her phrasing produced exactly the right weight of tone with no sense of showboating; it was as if Mozart had a modern Steinway in mind when he wrote for piano.

After the interval, Dohnányi captured the alternation between heavy cloud and glittering sunshine that many performances of Brahms’s Second Symphony miss. Dohnányi has worked with this orchestra for years and knows its innermost thoughts.

Winds and strings blended perfectly, yet there was ample room for individual sections to impose their stamp: the quiet playing of the double basses was breathtaking, the horns ripe and mellow. Even Brahms might have smiled.