A spectacular series of firsts at the Proms

The untrammelled jubilance of The Elements by Errollyn Wallen, master of the King’s music; the ghostly mysteries of Tom Coult’s Monologues for the Curious; the visionary revelation of Zebra (or, 2-3-74: The Divine Invasion of Philip K Dick) by Mark Simpson: three world premieres in the opening days of the 2025 BBC Proms had a collective buoyancy that propelled them to the top in a week dense with hefty repertoire favourites.

Symphonies by Berlioz, Mahler, and Walton; concertos by Sibelius and Ravel; a relatively rare choral work, Sancta Civitas, by Vaughan Williams; and a salty variety orchestral suite by Shostakovich laid out key elements of the season ahead, up to Last Night on 13 September. The BBC orchestras and choirs are, as ever, a backbone. Last week, the Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra, with their new conductor Mark Wigglesworth, also made an impressive mark. In the anniversary lineup, Ravel and Shostakovich carry the weight with a cluster of others – Bliss, Berio, Boulez, Arvo Pärt – as supporting vertebrae.

This season features 19 premieres. New works have been the lifeblood of the Proms since its start in 1895. Wallen’s Elements, written for the BBC Symphony Orchestra and conductor Sakari Oramo, recollected the composer’s connection with dance music and her own earlier life playing keyboards in bands. Expansive and outward-facing in this piece, Wallen caught the First Night mood with even a touch of humour, a commodity in short supply in the nerve-racking world of new commissions. Never underestimate the tiny number of opportunities available to composers, the scarcity of funding or the risks involved in writing for a huge orchestra in the unknowable acoustic of the Royal Albert Hall. All three composers this past week are experienced, but Centre Court, two people and ball, looks almost straightforward in comparison.

Inspired by the ghost stories of MR James, Coult’s Monologues – four micro-dramas for tenor and orchestra – reworks James’s texts in short, cryptic poems. The soloist, Allan Clayton, made every word, including two brief refrains in French, audible and highly charged. Subjects range from the quietly erotic lure of a man in a hotel bedroom to a murderous dream, a lonely hearts ad and a dead child. The orchestra was the BBC Philharmonic, conducted by John Storgårds. Every orchestral colour was fresh, from the use of harmonicas and melodicas, sonically bendy and atmospheric, to the clicks of metronomes in the percussion section. The composer himself describes the writing for strings, at one point and accurately, as “chocolatey”. Heard again on BBC Sounds, the hall recording favours the voice, so some of these effects are lost, but it’s a vivid and disturbing creation by a major talent.

In Zebra, for electric guitar and orchestra, Mark Simpson – interviewed in these pages last week – captured all the layered, zany hallucinations of the American sci-fi author Philip K Dick, his inspiration. Sean Shibe, the brilliant soloist and dedicatee, and the BBC Philharmonic were conducted – or maybe sculpted is more accurate – by Anja Bihlmaier. The work is noisy, insistent, challenging but also lyrical. Combining organ, drum kit, synthesiser, piano and harp with the rest of the orchestra, Simpson took us into other sonic worlds, other universes. It’s what we ask of music.

BBC Proms runs at the Royal Albert Hall, London, until 13 September

Photograph by BBC