Iconoclasm was the theme of Antonio Pappano's Prom with the Rome-based Orchestra and Chorus of the Academy of Santa Cecilia, of which he has been music director since 2005. The programme consisted of two works that redefined the parameters of musical form. In Berio's Sinfonia, a key score of the 1960s, the implosion of symphonic structures paves the way for an examination of existential absurdity and political engagement. Rossini's Stabat Mater, meanwhile, garishly brings operatic flamboyance to bear on a text primarily associated with Christian contemplation.

Pappano offered interpretations that were thrilling in their immediacy and subtly thoughtful. The Sinfonia was suavely ironic and coolly lucid: its notorious central scherzo - in which Berio weaves a postmodern collage of quotes into a reworking of part of Mahler's Second Symphony - was as funny as it was unnerving. The balance was at times imperfect, with the Swingle Singers occasionally too distant. The orchestral playing, however, was faultless.

The real revelation came with the Rossini. Pappano was having none of the usual criticism that the Stabat Mater is inappropriately upbeat. The whole thing was alarmingly intense, from the dark orchestral phrases with which it opens to the final exultant sequence of Amens. The soloists, in comparison, seemed disengaged at times, though tenor Colin Lee was electrifying and soprano Janice Watson, a late replacement for Emma Bell, let fly some laser-like top Cs in the Inflammatus. The real heroes, however, were the Academy's Chorus, one of the world's great choirs: their singing was astonishing in its power, flexibility and richness of tone.

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