It’s an exciting treat for us Brits when the Boston Symphony Orchestra comes to town. The first of their two-night residency at the Royal Albert Hall explores loss and longing in Strauss, Prokofiev and Adolphe (Prom 52). Prom 55 explores the human love of dance.

French pianist Jean-Yves Thibaudet gives us a flawless rendition of Gershwin’s Piano Concerto in F major (1925), to enormous approval from the sold-out, 6000-capacity auditorium. But even though this is an American orchestra playing an American classic, they don’t lean into Gershwin’s theatricality and bluesiness: the whole thing is too controlled and refined.

This is not the case for the finale of Ravel’s La Valse (1920), where the orchestra get stuck right in to Ravel’s hallucinatory parody of the ballroom waltz, and seem to enjoy all the orchestral colour and flair the piece has to offer. Similarly, Stravinsky’s 1911 neoclassical ballet Petrushka draws on Russian folk tunes and the old tradition: conducted by Andris Nelsons, it’s cheeky and sinister in all the right places. Some of the piece’s most breathtaking moments feature solo piano and celesta (Vytas Baksys).

Starting the concert, the European premiere of Four Black American Dances (2022) by African-American composer Carlos Simon seems tame by comparison to the rest of the programme. Like Gershwin’s Piano Concerto, it draws on African-American jazz, and particularly how such often joyous music and dance arose from enslavement and exclusion. It’s not great, but it sets the tone, and it’s an exciting outing for the percussion section in particular.

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