The Royal Albert Hall hosted an ambitious BBC Symphony Orchestra programme under Josep Pons, pairing late-Romantic colour with muscular modernism. The evening moved from Dukas’s shimmering impressionism to Rachmaninov’s virtuoso variations, before closing with Bartók’s ‘grotesque pantomime’ The Miraculous Mandarin: a sequence designed to challenge as much as charm.

Dukas’s La Péri ‘Un Poème Dansé’ (1912) opened the evening with a great deal of class. Pons drew a luxuriant sound from the orchestra; woodwinds delicately framing the long-lined strings. Though short, the piece glowed with supple phrasing, offering a refined, if tantalisingly brief, prologue to the night. It was the highlight — no doubt.

Rachmaninov’s Rhapsody on a Theme of Paganini (1934) brought pianist Beatrice Rana to the fore. Her reading was both poised and playful, dispatching the technical hurdles with much articulation. The famous eighteenth variation bloomed tenderly, though elsewhere her brisk tempos sometimes unsettled the orchestra. Still, the rapport between soloist and conductor supplied plenty of electricity.

Bartók’s The Miraculous Mandarin (1924) closed the programme with somewhat of a jolt. While the orchestra attacked the score’s violence with commitment, the work’s relentless angularity and garish climaxes felt more exhausting than exhilarating. After the luminous Dukas, and finely-wrought Rachmaninov, this finale landed with more bludgeon than bite; and had this reviewer saying ‘meh’ on the warm walk back to the station.

Tickets for all 72 Proms are available from just £8 on the Royal Albert Hall’s BBC Proms 2025 website.