Long before Ricky Gervais and Extras, there was The Life and Death of 9413 - A Hollywood Extra, one of the first independent American films, directed in 1928 by Robert Florey and Slavko Vokapich. Visualising Hollywood in terms of Fritz Lang's dystopian Metropolis, it is a savage tragicomedy that deals with a wannabe actor destroyed by a system that reduces people to numbered objects. The BFI commissioned David Sawer to compose an accompanying score in 1996, and a rare screening of the film together with Sawer's music formed the centrepiece of one of the Philharmonia's Music of Today pre-concert events conducted by Edward Gardner.

Hollywood Extra was a natural for Sawer, whose work is rooted in a fascination with early 20th century culture. His score combines the sinuosity of Berg with the tanginess of Weill. Its companion piece was Take Off, dating from 1986 and inspired by the Wright brothers' pioneering first flight in 1903. This is music that aspires to - and briefly attains - a hovering weightlessness in the face of a pull exerted by bass clarinet drones and a sinking seven-note phrase that tries to drag it back down.

Tchaikovsky's Second Symphony, the closing work of the main concert conducted by Alexander Lazarev, is also about taking flight, as Tchaikovsky struggles to break free from the sombre opening to assert his own voice. Ideally suited to Lazarev's flamboyant style, it was preceded by a thrilling performance of Brahms's Second Piano Concerto. Nikolai Lugansky, more forthright and less poetic than some interpreters, was the impressive soloist.