Ben Folds and yMusic @ Usher Hall, 14 June

“Every year, I make up 12 or 13 new songs,” Ben Folds explains dryly. “That means we’ve got... 11 more to go.” We’re two songs into his performance with the yMusic ensemble, and the audience titters. Folds, ever the deadpan, teases a whole night of latest LP So There, a risky taunt from an artist carrying over two decades of beloved piano pop.

But despite this ambling start, it’s a fine introduction to the prowess of the NYC ensemble flanking his piano. A mix of strings, woodwind, brass and percussion, yMusic (who co-arranged So There with Folds) bring a whole new dimension to the pianist’s distinctive sound. Integral to the latest record, their fluttery flute and wily strings have real character on Capable of Anything or Phone in a Pool, sounding as much a part of his opus as anything from Rockin’ The Suburbs.

It’s what they do with the man’s back catalogue that’s the real triumph. Consummate chamber musicians, their reimaginings of hits like Erase Me or the tender Boxing are heart-in-mouth moments. Jesusland becomes transcendental; Song for the Dumped emerges from a tangled, deconstructed knot of instruments (Folds apparently selects its starting player at random each performance – tonight it’s the cellist), while Steve’s Last Night in Town, bedecked with trumpets, breaks down for surely the sexiest clarinet solo ever heard in the Usher Hall.

And his fan service isn’t done; he ambitiously opens up a solo interlude to requests and, deafened by the response, guesses that we’d shouted for Zak and Sara, Eddie Walker, and the tearjerking The Luckiest. Between his witty banter and heartwarming backstories, all that’s left is some audience interaction. He ends – reunited with yMusic – with the epiphanic Not The Same, calling on the crowd for its rising chorus harmonies. Conducting us sat atop his piano with boyish glee, he’s got us good – so says that standing ovation.