The BBC Symphony Orchestra and conductor James Gaffigan gave an all-American Proms programme at London’s Royal Albert Hall, featuring the UK premiere of Wynton Marsalis’s Concerto for Orchestra, Gershwin’s Piano Concerto and Samuel Barber’s First Symphony. The reviewer found the concert strongest in Marsalis’s playful, sharply coloured orchestral writing and in the urgent, suspenseful Barber, while judging pianist Yeol Eum Son’s Gershwin performance too restrained against the orchestra’s force.

Marsalis’s six-movement concerto used prominent percussion, lively rhythmic exchanges and a recurring tuba presence to create a glossy sequence of dances, marches and solos; principal trombonist Helen Vollam was singled out for her powerful solo. The BBCSO was praised for responding closely to Gaffigan’s rhythmic direction, whereas Son’s delicacy in Gershwin was at times overwhelmed by the ensemble. Barber’s Symphony No 1, absent from the Proms since its 1941 festival premiere, was described as a gripping account that emphasised its dark, noir-like tension.