BBC Radio 3 listeners to Wednesday's live broadcast heard the CBSO dip its first toes into the water of what will be an enthralling four-year exploration of the complete works of Igor Stravinsky.

The contribution of the orchestra and its offshoots to this "IgorFest" will be substantial, and should offer revealing insights into the composer's output - as this programme certainly did.

I wouldn't cross the road to hear the Scherzo Fantastique ever again, this very early work (though the composer was already 25 when he wrote it) showing itself an undistinguished product of the stable of late-romantic Russian colourists, and something even a non-Russian composer like Dukas could easily produce. But its performance was deft and rippling.

And the account of the much later Concerto in D for strings, Stravinsky by this time rehashing quotes of his own quirky rhetoric, was poised and elegant, Sakari Oramo's players (so much on a roll in 20th-century string repertoire) both biting and feline.

Stravinsky abandoned expressive upper strings from his Symphony of Psalms, returning us to the Gabrielilike portentous sounds of 17th-century Venice, and this performance from an inspired CBS Chorus under Oramo's authoritative encouragement, full of sudden dynamic contrasts and sturdy choral sonorities, glittered and cast awe - though the opening was too fast to allow the woodwind ritual to tell.

Finally back to the Russian colourists for the complete Firebird ballet, an overblown and tedious score which really needs the definition of stage action to make it work.

Nevertheless, Oramo's dynamic conducting drew pearls of enchantment from his richly-cushioned orchestra playing at the top of its form, with the slimy sounds of magical evil particularly effective.

* Repeated tomorrow (7pm). Running time 2 hours 15 minutes.