Harlequin, Purcell Room, London

"Bringing music to life" is the motto of the Harlequin wind ensemble – a challenging precept when set in the moribund ambience of a half-filled Purcell Room. None the less, through a relaxed and communicative style, they provided an entertaining and entertaining concert. Among the more accessible items, Ethel Smyth's Two Interlinked French Folk Melodies – one dapper, the other wistful – for flute, clarinet and piano was a delightful miniature. Alan Bush's Three African Sketches for flute and piano found the composer on his cheerful side, its genial development of native folk melodies steeped in hisbrand of pugnacious humanism.

Two works by Justin Connolly gave a reminder of his ability to write eloquently and passionately in an atonal idiom. "Remembering the Butterfly" for flute and piano was written for Harlequin's flautist Mark Underwood in 1998 in memory of a spaniel. It was emotionally wide-ranging, from the threnody-like opening and concluding sections to the gambolling centre part. Silbo for piccolo and piano, also commissioned by Underwood, received its premiere. Inspired by the whistling "language" of herdsmen in the Canary Islands mountains, its urgent phrases evoked a dialogue conducted over vast spaces.

Minna Keal's resumption of composing, encouraged by Connolly, initiated a late flowering of her talent. The "Duettino" for flute and clarinet of 1996 was compact and serene, and made a moving, benedictory coda to her large-scale autumnal works such as the Symphony and the Cello Concerto.

William Hurlstone's Quintet in G minor for flute, clarinet, horn, bassoon and piano impressed most with the strength of its piano writing: not surprising, as Hurlstone had been a brilliant pianist with a great career ahead of him before his death in 1906, aged 30. Use of other instruments was less adventurous, and there was an occasional whiff of the Victorian parlour. The piece has a Brahmsian influence apparent in the outer movements' main subjects, while the central Andante cantabile suggested that the composer also knew his Dvorak, the main melody bearing a resemblance to the String Serenade's Larghetto.

Harlequin's members, with the pianist Carol Wells and the horn-player Helen Shillito, conveyed their enjoyment of the repertoire. Connolly brought authority to the piano part of his own works, and Underwood showed a striking expressive and dynamic range. An enterprising programme given with warmth and spirit.