This year marks 150 years since Rachmaninov was born (1873), and the BBC Proms are marking the event with eleven of his works performed during the season. The most famous thing about his Symphony No. 1 (1897) is how much the composer hated its under-rehearsed, poorly-performed premiere. This is worlds away from the flawless playing by the BBC Philharmonic, led by their chief conductor John Storgårds. Here, the 22-year-old composer’s clashing textures and fiery fanfares blow us away, as the BBC Philharmonic dig into the score’s young angst. The auditorium is only half-full, but the reception is rapturous.

This year also marks 100 years since the death of Croatian composer Dora Pejačević, another composer being celebrated with a career-retrospective across the Proms. English opera star Dame Sarah Connolly sings four orchestral songs composed to German poetry between 1915 and 1920, and captures the pure romance of the songs that delight in the beauty of nature, with her trademark, mature mezzo-soprano.

Connolly continues with three orchestral songs by Austrian composer Alma Mahler-Werfel, also set to German poetry, published between 1910 and 1915. Yes, Mahler-Werfel was Mahler’s wife, but she was also a skilled and nuanced composer in her own right, as these dark and brooding lieder attest. It’s exciting to see the Proms turning the spotlight on two female composers – both contemporaries of Rachmaninov, and now sharing a programme with him, too.

The Prom opens with the charming overture to Weber’s opera Oberon (1826). The BBC Philharmonic capture the “a-whole-drama-in-nine-minutes” theatricality, with a particularly rousing finish.

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