No, the proms hadn't suddenly been hijacked for the evening by Classic FM. This concert for the first Sunday night of the season really was called the Nation's Favourite Prom, as if a programme of popular classics - the kind of thing that has always been included in the series once or twice a year - now has to be given such a marketing spin.
It's hard to see the justification for such bargain basement tactics, and coming just two days after the first night, which had hardly been a demanding or esoteric event either. It did little to dispel the view that the proms this year are bending over backwards to be all things to whoever can be tempted through the doors of the Albert Hall. So there we were with an American-French programme of lollipops, but it also happened to be the first chance for a London audience to hear the BBC Philharmonic under its new principal conductor, Gianandrea Noseda. There was certainly plenty of chance to make the orchestra glitter and whirl in this programme, and Noseda set the tone with a dashing account of the Overture to Bernstein's Candide, by turns jaunty and sharp-witted. On this evidence he is a versatile musician, coming up with a passably orgiastic account of the Bacchanale from Saint-Saens' Samson et Delila, and driving Ravel's Bolero ever onward while relishing its virtuoso orchestration en route. Denyce Graves eased her way through a group of Gershwin's songs with orchestra and tackled the Habenera and Seguidilla from Bizet's Carmen, before appearing in her third dress of the evening for Mon coeur s'ouvre à ta voix from Samson et Delila. There was plenty of fruity mezzo tone, but not a lot of refinement or pointful phrasing, and she was even sartorially challenged by Jean-Yves Thibaudet, dressed up to the nines for his performance of Rhapsody in Blue. Thibaudet certainly plays the Gershwin to the manner born, with a mixture of showbusiness glitz and saucy jazzy inflections. It was so slick and well presented it would have been easy to overlook the high-class musicianship informing his playing, but then this was an evening where packaging was the highest priority. · This concert will be rebroadcast on Radio 3 on Wednesday at 2pm