Before the last of his three concerts with the Philharmonia this month, Esa-Pekka Salonen conducted a programme in the orchestra's early-evening Music of Today series. Alongside sparky performances of Lutoslawski, Castiglioni and Donatoni - all composers with whom Salonen either studied or developed a particular affinity - there was the UK premiere of one of his own recent scores. The wind quintet Memoria, from 2003, is a reworking of a 20-year-old piece, Mimo, now morphed into the sleek, suave and rather bland transatlantic style of Salonen's recent music, before ending with a short, fractured chorale in memory of Luciano Berio.

The main event continued the pattern of its predecessors: beginning with an early Haydn symphony (No 8 in G) and following it with a Mahler song cycle (the Rückert Lieder, with baritone Matthias Goerne as the soloist) before ending with one of the 20th-century's seminal works, Bartok's Music for Strings, Percussion and Celesta. Like the first in the series, the performances grew steadily in authority and involvement. Hearing Salonen conduct Haydn is a bit like watching a seal juggling: it's uncomfortable to see him take on something with which he has so little affinity.

The Bartok, by contrast, was outstanding. Salonen generated a furious energy in the scherzo and the finale, gave the spidery opening fugue a perfect architectural balance, and clothed the night music of the Adagio in luminous orchestral tints.