Marios Papadopoulos brought to a close his performances of the complete Mozart Piano Concertos, with the Oxford Philomusica Orchestra, in the Sheldonian Theatre on November 23. The three works, all written in Vienna, concluded with Mozart's last piano concerto, K595 in B flat, written early in 1791, the year of his death.

It must be said at once that Marios Papdopoulos has achieved more than a notable personal triumph with this cycle of concerts. The musicologist Alfred Einstein, after treating Mozart's instrumental and symphonic works, refers to his clavier concerti as "the synthesis", and indeed it's hard to think of a nobler way of celebrating this 250th anniversary than performing all 24 in the ideal baroque surroundings of the Sheldonian. Only a complete run of the operas would be comparable - and the Philomusica paid them an inspired tribute in March with the first performance in modern times of the first edition of The Magic Flute.

My own, purely personal, reservation about this series is the invariable use of a Steinway grand, whose mellifluous tone - delicious in the slow movements - sometimes fails to point up Mozart's delicate wit in the fast ones. Not that this affected Thursday's concert - the final Allegretto of the first concerto, K414 in A, was exactly right, and the last movement of the D Major K 451 spoilt only by too slow a speed (in my opinion) for a piece marked allegro di molto. A pity, when the movement began with such a splendid string attack (leader, John Georgiadis).

The performance of the last concerto, K595, was calm, understated and very moving. Today it is constantly pointed out that Mozart had no means of knowing that 1791 was to be his final year, that this work is no 'farewell to life'. Yet in the limpid flow of the second movement, and the iridescent lightness of the last, Papadopoulos brought out an unmistakeable sense of resignation.