Just what is the London Philharmonic doing? I think it might be trying to take over the world or, at least, dominate classical music in the South.

Not content with its co-residency with the Brighton Philharmonic Orchestra at the Dome, Brighton, it has a residency at Eastbourne, a summer residency at Glyndebourne and now it is making rapid inroads into the music scene at Chichester.

On Thursday, and at Eastbourne on Sunday, it unleashed its forces in a programme of American music of the 20th Century.

It was superbly done and American conductor Rachael Worby waved a mean baton.

She also used the whole of her body, swaying and bending, as she led her players through a series of major pieces loosely based on the theme of dance.

Duke Ellington, George Gershwin, Aaron Copland and Leonard Bernstein I'll come to presently but the oddest thing was the inclusion of Morton Gould's Concerto for Orchestra and Tap Dancer.

Gould was an award-winning composer of film music, show scores and so on and this piece celebrates the American art of tap dancing.

In dancer Lane Alexander, the orchestra had a superb hoofer who dazzled and amazed with his neat footwork, his whirls and his clickety-clack heels and toes.

But it was very much a question of great dancing, shame about the music.

Gould's score was immediately forgettable. It was insipid, weak and fey and always, always, lost out to the sound of the tap moves.

In any case, tap doesn't need music. This form of dance works best where there is no music, as Mr Alexander proved so well in a mini, music-less encore.

But that was my only quibble. For the rest, it was powerful and moving music making.

Ellington's the River Suite, or at least three movements from it, showed the Duke was as at home in the classical format as he was with jazz.

And German pianist Andreas Boyd showed he was no slouch in George Gershwin's hymn to New York, Rhapsody In Blue.

Highly-charged, emotional and shock full of zest, this was a high-voltage charge of magnificent music to make you stamp your feet, cheer and generally roar approval.

The orchestra did similarly good work with Bernstein's Symphonic Dances from West Side Story.

But my favourite piece was the four dances from Aaron Copland's Western ballet, The Rodeo.

Copland, a Brooklyn boy, sums up ordinary America in all his music. He includes English, Irish, Scots and Welsh folk tunes and allies them to Quaker hymns, negro spirituals, simple melodies and the wide-open spaces and farmland of the American West.

His music is both small and vast and the LPO and Ms Worby gave all this due regard in a majestic and moving interpretation. A knock-out performance.