Huw Watkins's London Concerto is an optimistic score, the latest in the series of commissions with which the LSO is celebrating its centenary. Like the others, it centres on a handful of soloists from within the orchestra, and here they were an unusual combination: the bassoonist Rachel Gough, violinist Carmine Lauri and harpist Bryn Lewis.

It's a substantial piece, cast in five movements, though the second and fourth are brief orchestra-only pendants to the snappy first and gentler third. Lauri's violin held its own, but the bassoon and harp could easily have been swamped. However, the restraint with which Watkins employed his forces was a welcome sign of maturity from a composer still in his 20s. The violin often played a belligerent role, but there was much that was strikingly tender, too, with the bassoon given some beautiful melodic fragments over ethereal strings, gorgeously played by Gough.

However, for all the craft and immediacy of the score, the stamp of Britten was a little too pervasive. We might have heard a more individual voice if Watkins had been able to let rip with the forces available to him, rather than taking care to accommodate the soloists.

Lorin Maazel was in the audience to witness the debut of Xian Zhang, winner of his 2002 conducting competition and currently his assistant at the New York Philharmonic. The overture to Verdi's La Forza del Destino established her as a forceful, assured presence, drawing out crisp playing and a sense of drama.

However, if the overture was a little clinical, it was subtle compared to what followed. Yes, this is the band that recorded the Star Wars theme - but you don't necessarily want to be reminded of that during Tchaikovsky's Fifth Symphony. Bending the tempo around laboriously in the first movement, Zhang whipped up a full-bodied yet brash and brass-heavy sound throughout, which weighed the music right down.