Valery Gergiev should go into corporate public relations. Before he took up his post at the Mariinsky Theatre in St Petersburg, how many people outside Russia could have described the company's style, or what it stood for, or could claim that they were familiar with its performances?
Ten years on there is no opera and ballet company in the world with a higher profile. Having identified native Russian opera as its core repertoire, Gergiev set about the huge task of putting together cycles of the operas of Mussorgsky, Rimsky-Korsakov, Tchaikovsky and Prokofiev, capitalising on the hard grind at home with foreign tours, recordings and fund-raising galas: a masterful example of how to create an international brand.
This visit marked the decade since Gergiev first came to London with the Mariinsky Opera (or "Kirov", as it was better known then). The three concerts comprised one of Rimsky-Korsakov, one of Shostakovich, and the third of Stravinsky.
Gergiev's Stravinsky has split opinions. Play Tchaikovsky with his kind of romantic impulsiveness and the result is likely to sweep audiences off their feet. Head off down the same track with clear-headed, unemotional Stravinsky and the signals may warn of a collision of styles.
Friday's programme opened with the ballet score to Les Noces, and one strength became apparent: the chorus of the Mariinsky Theatre is a top-drawer ensemble, underpinning the whole performance with its unanimity, energy and native rightness of tone. All that was missing in this boisterous Russian wedding was the vodka.
The soloists sang from the front of the stage in the first half, but for Oedipus Rex they were banished behind the orchestra. Maybe Oleg Balashov might have sounded less stentorian in the title role had he been in closer contact with the audience, Zlata Bulycheva's Jocasta less gutsy, Evgeny Nikitin less unremittingly fortissimo. But Gergiev's drive carried this dry and formal opera-oratorio powerfully forwards and his excellent Mariinsky choir and orchestra never let him down.
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