With a classical background, followed by a period as a jazz musician, then membership of the 1970s Soft Machine, Karl Jenkins found his niche writing music for TV ads. The instantly accessible result was expanded into Adiemus, the recipient of 15 awards and a lynchpin of Classic FM programming - indeed Jenkins is the highest- placed living composer in its hall of fame. Given his thriving crossover career, a commission from the LSO for its centenary season was not altogether surprising. What was surprising, and depressing, was the low aim and slender achievement of the result.

Quirk is a concertante piece highlighting the talents of three LSO principals - flautist Gareth Davies, percussionist Neil Percy and keyboards player John Alley - who multiskilled on various instruments.

The banal ideas of the opening movement, Snap, marked time without getting anywhere near the Hollywood glamour or Gershwinesque cityscapes that provided their models. Mood music followed in Raga Religioso, its tikka masala flavouring adding insufficient spice to some sub-Vaughan Williams harmonies. The finale, Chasing the Goose, had no musical content of distinction whatsoever, and served only to accentuate how much better Shostakovich and Prokofiev did this kind of moto perpetuo. Colin Davis conducted what must be the thinnest piece he's raised his baton over in decades.

The first eight bars of the Haydn symphony- the rare No 72 - offered more wit and invention than Jenkins's entire 15-minute vacuity. Davis and the players brought to it precision and poise. But what gave the concert distinction was Gordan Nikolitch's playing of the Brahms Violin Concerto, in a performance notable for outstanding technical command, expert tone colours, and the soloist's surely unconscious tendency to dance around the stage. Like the rest of his interpretation, it was in the spirit of Brahms and especially apt in the flamboyant Hungarian finale.