For some reason a debate has reared its head about how the credit crunch has stifled adventurous concert programming. With major series devoted to composers Alfred Schnittke this month, George Crumb in December and John Adams in January, the question should surely be the opposite: how are the London orchestras managing to do so much?

Even among core orchestral programmes there is imagination being brought to play, as shown in the pair of concerts Michael Tilson Thomas has just given at the Barbican with the London Symphony Orchestra. This was a well-matched duo, focusing on the Viennese thread that links Schubert to Berg, and the second of the concerts, on Sunday, was far from a lazy trotting out of standard favourites.

The sunny lyricism of Schubert’s Rosamunde was a good place to start. In the Overture and two entr’actes Tilson Thomas kept the playing light on its feet and made sure the melodies sang to make a link to the Mahler coming next – even if the way in which he eked out every drop of emotion from the famous Entr’acte to Act 2 was a bit too much like Mahlerian angst for comfort.

The centrepiece of the programme was a generous selection of songs from Mahler’s Des Knaben Wunderhorn, sung by baritone Matthias Goerne. As in his solo recitals, Goerne lived out every song physically, straining and stretching as if he was dancing some private ballet. But his singing was just as involved: the long, arching lines of silken grey in the slow songs, like “Urlicht”, are a Goerne trademark and were expected. More striking were the newly vivid storytelling, the painful cynicism of “Revelge” and the funereal tragedy of “Der Tambourg’sell”.

The second half opened with “Blumine”, the super-romantic elegy discarded from Mahler’s Symphony No 1, eloquently played by the LSO’s new co-principal trumpet. From there to Berg’s Three Pieces for Orchestra is a logical step. Tilson Thomas took care over detail, shone a clear light into complex orchestral corners and ramped up the LSO’s playing to its peak – a first-rate performance. The only disappointment was the scanty size of the audience. Safe programming may not be endemic yet, but it could be if more people do not start turning up.