Holst’s iconic, seven-movement orchestral suite The Planets (1917) is performed almost annually at the Proms, and is always one of the hottest tickets. This year is no exception, with a standing ovation from a sold-out audience of six thousand people.

The BBC National Orchestra of Wales (BBC NOW) have us rapt from beginning to end, led by world-renowned Spanish conductor Jaime Martín, in his Proms debut. You might think a hundred years of the suite’s ubiquitous popularity would mean there’s nothing left for a Proms audience to discover. But in the hands of the supremely confident BBC NOW, it almost functions as a showcase for the orchestra’s telepathic precision. There isn’t a note out of place; every blast of horns, every col legno strike, every manic woodwind run. There’s also something very special about performing this suite in the Royal Albert Hall: the mighty, 9,999-pipe organ (Jonathan Hope) in “Mars, the Bringer of War”, for one thing; and hidden away in the rafters of the gallery, the London Symphony Chorus upper voices suddenly join the orchestra in “Neptune, the Mystic”: a breathtaking effect.

The Proms has also always championed less well-known music, and this Prom’s popularity allows for a spotlight on two female composers in the first half. It’s the Proms debut of Welsh composer Grace Williams’ Violin Concerto (1950), a piece which she all but outlawed public performances of during her lifetime. As the orchestra churn a strange and intoxicating musical world, the violin cuts through: we cannot take our eyes off BBC Radio 3 New Generation Artist Geneva Lewis (also a Proms debut artist), whose robust, unsentimental tone makes full use of Williams’ never-ending phrases.

Opening the concert is another Proms debut performance, of Dora Pejačević’s quick Overture (1919), a grand and nationalistic-influenced piece, with an exciting finale.

Tickets for all 71 Proms are available from just £8 on the BBC Proms 2023 website.