You can count the number of blues cellists in the world on the fingers of neither hand; but perhaps the nearest approximation is Ulrich Heinen, co-founder of the Birmingham Contemporary Music Group, for whom Mark-Anthony Turnage wrote the heart-breakingly soulful cello concerto, Kai.

Written in 1989-90, in response to the death of the brilliant young cellist Kai Scheffler, the piece marked a turning point in Turnage's career as the composer first allowed his jazz instincts full reign.

Kai developed out of an abandoned opera based on the life of jazz musician Charlie Mingus, and although the stage opus fizzled to nothing, its most mournful, lyrical moments were drafted into the concerto. Pungent melodic whiffs of Mingus's Donna Lee and Goodbye Pork Pie Hat float in and out of the structure like the scent of strong bourbon, while the cadenza is indebted to a Charlie Parker improvisation.

Heinen gives a masterclass in the art of making a cello sound like a saxophone, battling heroically against big-band elements, including a drum kit and bass guitar. Kai remains more jazz-inflected than jazz based, but it paved the way for greater orchestral fusions such as Your Rockaby and Blood on the Floor. It was the first piece in which Turnage's music really began to swing.

The performance featured in an evening of firsts for the Northern Sinfonia: the first time it has programmed a Turnage work, a first appearance by the promising young Australian conductor Alex Briger and - if you can believe this - the first time it has performed Brahms's second symphony.

As a dedicated chamber ensemble, the Sinfonia rarely ventures towards this end of the 19th century, and it requires supplementary forces to make up the numbers. You can detect some of the stretch marks - the expanded string section is not quite the integrated unit of its usually ultra-cohesive core, and there were one or two indecisive moments in the wind section. But Briger, an amiable, exuberant personality, eventually succeeded in blending the more wayward elements into a satisfying, slimline whole.