This Birmingham Contemporary Music Group concert was a vibrant affirmation of the ensemble's core commitments, with the premieres of two substantial commissions alongside key contemporary repertoire.

Nicholas Sackman's new Concerto in Black opened the programme. Scored for 16 players - though calling on an extra percussionist for the multiple transitions from marimba to vibraphone and xylophone - the aural spectrum was sassy and often jazzy, with every instrument a virtuosic element in the fabric of the piece. Yet, by the composer's own admission, the black of the title reflected his own mood at the time of composition, and glimpses of unease beneath the exuberance bore this out. More problematically, the passages of escalating tension, driven hard by conductor Diego Masson, seemed to dissipate rather than realise potent musical landmarks, but the work's aura of high velocity was vividly sustained.

The almost ephemeral quality of Intermezzo by Eivind Buene took the listener into quite a different soundworld, and offered a useful point of entry into his new work, Garland for Matthew Locke. The deliberate invoking of the music of an early baroque English composer was a curious choice by this young lion of the Norwegian contemporary scene, but his handling of both material and chamber medium was highly assured. As it emerged from the tangled garland of surface embellishment, an impassioned solo piano sequence had a compelling immediacy; with the memory of that hanging in the air, the ghostly threads of Locke viols were all the more evocative, alluding to a compact of present and past that could embrace psychological as well as philosophical perceptions.

Performances of the French-Swiss Michael Jarrell's beautifully lucid Music for a While and Harrison Birtwistle's Silbury Air completed a demanding but rewarding night.