The Guardian's review praises a BBC Philharmonic Proms concert at the Royal Albert Hall, conducted by Gianandrea Noseda, which paired Bach and Beethoven with the UK premiere of Jessie Montgomery's new cello concerto. Though the programme looked mismatched on paper, the critic found it cohered brilliantly in performance, calling it emblematic of everything the Proms festival does well, with the concert's timing lending Beethoven's Ninth an unexpected topical resonance around themes of unity and fellowship.

The highlight was Abel Selaocoe's performance in Montgomery's "These Righteous Paths," a concerto shaped around the composer's late mother, playwright Robbie McCauley, whose poems inspired its three movements. Selaocoe employed wordless vocalise, mouth percussion, throat singing and African song alongside the cello, described as more storyteller than conventional soloist. The concert opened with Andrew Davis's orchestral arrangement of Bach's Fantasia and Fugue in G minor and closed with a fleet, classically driven account of Beethoven's Ninth Symphony, featuring the Philharmonia Chorus and a strong vocal quartet.