Stravinsky's bassoon is BPO's mourning for Wightman

But, as well as the good news, the afternoon had a sad note. Conductor Barry Wordsworth made a moving tribute to Brian Wightman, the orchestra's principal bassoonist, who was tragically killed in a road accident in the summer.

He said Brian would be much missed and was beloved by the whole orchestra for his personality and sense of humour. He had been playing for the BPO for so long that nobody knew for sure when he had started.

The orchestra chose to dedicate a performance of Stravinsky's Firebird Suite to Brian, partly, I suspect, because the lullaby near the end has a hauntingly beautiful passage for solo bassoon. It was played with mellow effect by Wendy Phillips.

Under the baton of a master of ballet music, this performance delivered an extravagant range of tone, colour and animation. There was a taste, too, of what the Firebird might have been, with a performance of Kikimora. Its composer, Anatol Lyadov, was originally commissioned to write it.

He would probably have made a less original job of Firebird but, on this evidence, an entertaining one, for he tells a tale well with bold, broad brushstrokes starting with a sinister opening and ending with a breathtaking finale brought to a close in abrupt, witty fashion with a deft dash of the piccolo. It was as if a mouse had halted an elephant.

The modern mood was heightened by John Harle, the first saxophonist soloist ever to have played with the BPO. With Rapsodie by Debussy, he gave a masterly display of the instrument's tone and range. Then with Milhaud's exotic Scaramouche, we were plunged into a dancehall of swing and blues.

Let's hope that Harle, a fine ambassador of the instrument, will be able to come again at a later date.

All this was in marked contrast to the elegiac qualities of Debussy's Prelude de l'Apres-midi d'un Faune, a languid impression of a slumbering mythical creature. It was given a fluid, atmospheric reading by the versatile Wordsworth, who chose the music for what proved an invigorating afternoon.