Late night Prom featuring Bach's most famous Brandenburg ("Going for a song"), and some lovely cantata with Iestyn Davies as the counter-tenor. Geist und Seele wird verwirret (Spirit and soul become confused) was composed by Bach in his fourth year as Thomaskantor (musical director) in Leipzig. A positive message, accentuated with the use of trumpets, it derives from the analogy that as the tongue of the deaf mute man was opened, the believer should be open to admire God's miraculous deeds. The relatively brief Vergnügte Ruh, beliebte Seelenlust (Delightful rest, beloved pleasure of the soul) was first performed on 28 July 1726. The text is drawn from Georg Christian Lehms' Gottgefälliges Kirchen-Opfer from 1711 and speaks of the desire to lead a virtuous life and so enter heaven and avoid hell.

Carlos Simon (b. 1986) is an African-American composer from Washington DC. His "Four Black American Dances" received it's European premiere with great ovation - powerful melodic stuff in a prom focusing loosely on "dance music". To quote "This piece is an orchestral study of the music that is associated with the Ring Shout, the Waltz, Tap Dance and the Holy Dance. All of these dances are but a mere representation of the wide range of cultural and social differences within the Black American communities." I also especially enjoyed Gershwin's Piano Concerto in F major having rarely heard it before - a sort of "Rhapsody in Blue - the sequel". Lots of references to that iconic work, and Gershwin's musicals. Good to hear modern American music from an American orchestra.