Once upon a time the name of Stockhausen was regarded as death at the box office. But the London Sinfonietta's efforts at building a broader-based audience had the new-look QEH foyer, with its Front Room and Soft Space, buzzing with anticipation for a Stockhausen UK premiere last night.

Anyone expecting one of the classic electronic scores will have been disappointed, however. Zodiac (Tierkreis), dating from 1974-75, is a series of short, engaging pieces, one for each star sign. Five were presented here in a newly orchestrated version from 2004. Under Oliver Knussen's skilful direction, the Sinfonietta revealed them to be a delightful set of character studies - so delightful that we were given an immediate repeat performance.

Also receiving its UK premiere was the Kammerkonzert 05 by Hans Werner Henze, a recent reworking of the composer's First Symphony, written originally in 1947 but already subjected to two chamberorchestra revisions over the years.

Particularly attractive was the middle movement: a rapt, sensual summer nocturne, whose delicate sonorities were immaculately realised by these players. This was the sunny side of a composer who, like Stockhausen, has a genial aspect to balance the more forbidding one.

Completing a hat-trick of UK premieres was Mauricio Kagel's Kammersymphonie, a 1996 reworking of a 1973 original. Kagel makes much use here of double octaves, apparently "forbidden" during the period of strict serialism. They provide a framework for contrasting kinds of movement: rapid or leisurely, fluttery or languid. There are also polarities of mode - comic and serious - in this rather theatrical piece, all of which came marvellously to life in this controlled, deadpan account under Knussen.