Charles Dutoit, principal conductor of the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, has long been an advocate of Respighi's so-called Roman trilogy, his sequence of symphonic poems composed between 1915 and 1928, which obliquely survey the city's history and culture through depictions of its fountains, pines and festivals.

Individually, the three pieces are variably familiar: we hear Roman Festivals less frequently than its two companions. Dutoit and the RPO, however, gave us all three in a single evening. And what a treat it turned out to be.

Concerns that Respighi's opulent idiom might prove indigestible over more than an hour's span were soon dissipated. The constant shifts in orchestral colour have a mesmerising, almost narcotic quality that both holds the attention throughout, and allows us to absorb Respighi's often garish sense of drama. He's usually pigeonholed as post-Romantic, though Dutoit reminded us of an eclectic mix of influences.

Roman Festivals, written last but placed first, opens in the Circus Maximus to ear-splitting dissonances as Christians are thrown to the lions, then glances at Stravinsky's Les Noces and Petrushka as the mood lightens.

Debussy haunts the Fountains of Rome, while Pines of Rome has strong overtones of Strauss. All three are admirably suited to the RPO's virtuoso manner, and it was hard to imagine them better done.

Another Rome-inspired work, Berlioz's Le Carnaval Romain, opened the evening in a performance that was fastidiously precise but curiously short on excitement. A sharp contrast was provided by Walton's Sinfonia Concertante for piano and orchestra, with its spiky yet affectionate portraits of Walton's patrons and friends, the Sitwell family. Danny Driver was the hard-hitting soloist in music that is at once difficult and ungrateful for the pianist. Dutoit conducted with great aplomb and bags of panache.