We know what a harpsichord and a soprano saxophone sound like, but can you imagine them together? We are used to seeing composers take a bashful bow at the end of a first performance, but can you recall a "serious" composer explaining his/her new piece immediately before it was premiered? It is not unusual for performers to look drained after a show, but have you seen a conductor in tears at the end?

All this happened at the latest London Philharmonic Orchestra concert. It broke rules - but breaking rules is how music moves forward. Marin Alsop introduced each piece and did it so wittily, with such intelligent musical examples, that any reservations about pre- programming the audience's sensors were swept away. The LPO played brilliantly for her and the choice of music - a new Mark-Anthony Turnage saxophone concerto, modern classics by Thomas Adès and James MacMillan, plus deceptively "light" ballet scores by Satie and Stravinsky - played to her strengths.

As a Bernstein pupil Alsop understands the sexy, rhythmic language and smoochy glissandos of Adès's Chamber Symphony, resulting in a performance of unexpected feeling. Having encountered prejudice in the music world she clearly identifies with the story of persecution that inspired MacMillan's The Confession of Isobel Gowdie, delivering it with punch-in-the- stomach intensity. Satie's Parade was dispatched with aplomb, Stravinsky's Jeu de cartes with rhythmic wit - despite this being clearly the most dispensable item.

That might have left space for a repeat performance of Hidden Love Song, the first fruit of Turnage's LPO residency. It is a 12-minute lyric meditation - unashamedly romantic, subtly coloured, seductively textured, with ample scope for the saxophone voice (Martin Robertson) to "bend" the notes. This is Turnage at his most personal, and the result is a miniature masterpiece.

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