Conductors who stick their toe in the murky waters of composition do so at their own risk, but at least Michael Tilson Thomas had the grace to ensure the latest of his scores to be heard in the UK didn't outstay its welcome.

Written in 1998, Agnegram is a throwaway five-minute march dedicated to an eccentric patron, noisily but deftly orchestrated, with swaggering, angular outer sections and a trio replete with duck noises and swanee whistle. You probably have to know the eccentric San Francisco Orchestra patron to whom it's dedicated to get the joke; still, it was an amiable curtain-raiser to this programme celebrating the LSO's principal guest conductor's 60th birthday.

It did, however, cry out for something more substantial as counterbalance than Prokofiev's 15-minute First Piano Concerto. Prokofiev wrote the piece to show off his own considerable pianistic skill, and soloist Yefim Bronfman was equal to the challenges, pummelling out notes and skittering over the keyboard with seeming abandon. The orchestral accompaniment was less secure, though, and colourless wind solos reinforced the sense of shallowness.

We had to wait until after the interval for some real musical depth, although the amorphous opening passage of Mahler's Symphony No. 1 suffered from a lack of blend that made string entries jolt into life, and some ropy tuning in wind and brass. The orchestra began to hit its stride with the consolidation of the main melody, and reinforced this impression in the beery stomp and woozy waltz of the second movement.

The heart of the work, however, came in a fluid account of the third movement, in which Mahler's evocation of klezmer music seemed an integral part of the funeral march, each growing alongside the other. This, more than the bombast of the final movement, was where Tilson Thomas made his mark.