Newly returned from South America, the BBC National Orchestra of Wales under the baton of Spaniard Eduardo Portal brought a Latin feelgood factor to this concert. Celebration of the 150th anniversary of the Welsh settlement in Patagonia had been the focus of their tour and, by way of souvenir, the flute concerto of Argentinian Lalo Schifrin was central to the programme.

Schifrin is known in the jazz world for his association with Dizzy Gillespie and with Hollywood for his film scores: this work didn’t represent the heavyweight or serious but was often intricately woven and, as its title Concierto Caribeño implies, sunny and dancing. As well as the clever foregrounding of the soloist, its writing for wind overall was highly effective. In the demanding passagework, the wizardry of BBCNOW’s principal flute Matthew Featherstone was on full display, and it was the expressive inflections and range of tonal colour he drew from his instrument that pushed everything up a notch.

The orchestra had opened with Danzón No 2 by Arturo Márquez by way of mood-lifter: an uncomplicated piece, yet one whose characteristic mix of languor and urgency was irresistible. The pampas of Luís Cluzeau Mortet’s native Uruguay are depicted in his tone-poem Llanuras; this began as an impressionistic reverie but, in its meanderings, proved anodyne.

Ultimately, the concert was a field day for percussionists. There were 13 of them all told – 15 counting timpani and Catherine Roe-Williams’s piano – for the arrangement of Silvestre Revueltas’s 1939 film score La Noche de los Mayas. At its most raw and ritualistic, this has distinct shades of Stravinsky, until the final theme and variations movement, where the concertino-style episode for percussion had its own primal impact.