In typically imaginative mode, Richard Tognetti and director Yaron Lifschitz have fashioned a program to transport us to the artistic heart of Paris in the 1920s: the era of Les Six and the popular nightclub Le Bœuf sur le toit (The Bull on the Roof). The club was named after a Brazil-influenced orchestral piece by Darius Milhaud, which the ACO play in a reduced arrangement as the second-last number in the concert.

The program comprises short pieces, each displaying something of the louche atmosphere of the time. The selections range from a highly individual, deconstructionist take on popular music in Stravinsky’s Ragtime through works by Les Six – or five-sixths of them: Georges Auric, Arthur Honegger, Francis Poulenc, Germaine Tailleferre and Milhaud.

Cocteau’s Circle: Richard Tognetti. Photo © Daniel Boud

Auric’s jaunty Ouverture opens the concert, attacked with Tognetti’s habitual zest, though I do miss the full orchestration here. One of the undeniable highlights of the program is Poulenc’s lilting French waltz Les Chemins de l’amour (a favourite encore of Jessye...