The Proms opened its new eight-week season at the Royal Albert Hall with a First Night programme built around the 250th anniversary of American independence, featuring works by Copland, Gershwin and Ravel alongside a new commission. Conductor Dalia Stasevska led the BBC Symphony Orchestra with characteristic energy, and the evening served as both a celebration of the "special relationship" in music and a scene-setter for the season ahead.

The concert opened with Copland's Fanfare for the Common Man before moving to a bold, brash account of Gershwin's An American in Paris. South Korean pianist Yunchan Lim then gave a precise, understated performance of Ravel's Piano Concerto in G major. The second half proved less cohesive, with a new Emily Dickinson-inspired commission from Josephine Stephenson and Finzi's For St Cecilia (featuring tenor Thomas Atkins and the BBC Singers) both judged somewhat slight, though the night closed with an unexpected mass-singalong encore of Oasis's Wonderwall.