Like other complex organisms -- birds, trees, fish --the symphony orchestra has spawned a shelf's worth of field guides. Uncertain of the difference between, say, the French and the English horns? Help is at hand. This week's Minnesota Orchestra program, led by Osmo Vänskä, surveys some of the resources available to the curious or the confused.

Along with Prokofiev's "Peter and the Wolf," Benjamin Britten's "Young Person's Guide to the Orchestra" (1946) is the most durable work of its kind. (Written for an educational film, it was repackaged for the concert hall, with a text that now sounds mannered and is usually omitted.)

Built on a heraldic theme by Henry Purcell, the "Guide" introduces the orchestral instruments in a series of variations, then unites them for a hyperactive fugal finale. The piece is seldom invoked when Britten's greatness is being argued. Yet it makes a grand noise, especially when played with as much wit and élan as it was Thursday. And in each variation, as biographer Michael Kennedy writes, "the color of the instrument is peculiarly Brittenish."

Tchaikovsky called Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov's "Capriccio Espagnol" (1887) "a colossal masterpiece of instrumentation," a somewhat backhanded compliment. Lacking Britten's overt instructional agenda -- Rimsky-Korsakov channeled his pedagogical impulses into an orchestration textbook, still in print after nearly a century --the "Capriccio" is a riot of Russo-Iberian color, studded with splashy cadenzas. Vänskä and colleagues sent sparks flying.

No less brilliantly scored (or played), Aaron Copland's music for "Rodeo" -- not the familiar suite but the 1942 ballet score, complete with honky-tonk piano -- capped the concert with a vernacular twang.

But the acme of Thursday's program was John Harbison's new, characteristically well-made "Concerto for Bass Viol" -- partly a study in curbing the orchestra. "I don't feel comfortable with the orchestra taking over [from the soloist] and making a huge sound," the composer told an interviewer.

Commissioned by the International Society of Bassists for a 15-orchestra consortium, the concerto -- a major addition to a slender repertoire -- has received a "rolling premiere" over the past two years. It was given an assured and nuanced reading Thursday by Turkish-born Fora Baltacigil, trained at the Curtis Institute of Music, who since July has been the orchestra's acting principal bass. He seemed particularly responsive to the emotional complexities of the opening Lamento, which I'm eager to hear again.

Larry Fuchsberg writes frequently about music.