Finished in 1921, A Colour Symphony was Arthur Bliss's first major orchestral score, and the work that transformed him from British music's enfant terrible in the years after the first world war into a composer to be reckoned with. But Bliss's crafty combination of the piquancy of Stravinsky with a symphonic architecture and sense of grandeur that obviously comes from Elgar hasn't worn well. The four movements, named after the heraldic colours of purple, red, blue and green, follow a traditional symphonic scheme with the scherzo placed second and a fugal finale, but lack any vivid moments.

Though Richard Hickox and the BBC National Orchestra of Wales have regularly excelled in such works, they never managed to make this one a compelling experience, and playing it straight after a gloriously expansive performance of Elgar's Overture in the South only emphasised the symphony's shortcomings. Yet it was interesting to hear A Colour Symphony alongside Walton's Belshazzar's Feast, first performed a decade later. Walton also had his moments as a musical radical in the 1920s before, like Bliss, he settled for a more audience-friendly conservatism. Belshazzar is rooted in the English choral tradition, but derives its energy from more modern models, a mixture that hardly ever fails to be spectacular in performance.

There was no danger of it misfiring here either. This was Hickox's last concert as BBCNOW's music director, and it was a spectacular way to say goodbye, with the combined forces of the London Symphony Chorus and the BBC National Chorus of Wales, London Brass arrayed in the balconies on either side of the stage and Bryn Terfel as baritone soloist. Terfel delivered Walton's setting in an almost conversational, anecdotal way; it's certainly one way of doing it, though something a bit more detached might have been more effective. Hickox ensured, though, that the splendour of Walton's choral and orchestral writing was unleashed, and the Albert Hall is the one auditorium that can cope with it.

· arts.theguardian.com/proms2006. The proms continue until September 9. Box office: 020-7589 8212