Usher Hall, Edinburgh 4 / 5 stars

There was nothing radical or revolutionary about Herbert Blomstedt's performance of Bruckner's Fourth Symphony with the Leipzig Gewandhaus Orchestra, and yet this was one of the most moving and satisfying orchestral performances of the Edinburgh festival. The piece unfurled with magnificent slowness and space, as Blomstedt conjured the vast vista of the opening theme, beginning with an archetypal horn call and growing into a celebratory climax.

The Gewandhaus players have Bruckner in their blood - their remarkable history, which goes back to Mozart and Mendelssohn, includes the world premiere of Bruckner's Seventh Symphony - and they revelled in the romanticism and rusticity of the Fourth Symphony. In an age of bland orchestral technique, where ensembles are becoming indistinguishable from one another, the Leipzig sound is something to savour, with the unique warmth of its string section, the piquancy of its winds and the vivid, incisive colours of its brass.

Blomstedt inspired the players to an emotionally and architecturally convincing performance of the rest of the symphony. The slow movement was an outpouring of gentle lyricism, the scherzo a pastoral idyll, complete with riotous, brassy fanfares, and the finale a monumental musical experience. The gigantic coda of the whole symphony - an immense progression from minor key murk to major key victory - was shatteringly powerful, an explosion of joyful, unbounded energy.

Blomstedt and the Leipzig players created a winning partnership with pianist Richard Goode in both of their programmes, with a clear, unfussy interpretation of Mozart's C minor concerto and a bluff, businesslike account of Beethoven's First Piano Concerto. But the most surprising moment of either concert was an effortlessly stylish performance of Bach's Second Orchestral Suite. This was playing of brilliance and insight, conducted with subtle authority by Blomstedt, and it was a timely revelation that Bach does not belong exclusively to period instrument ensembles.