Had you been at John Wilson's Respighi spectacular on Friday, or heard it on BBC Radio 3/watched it on BBC Four, you might have perceived last night's journey up and down Richard Strauss's Bavarian alp as an extension of Albert Hall possibilities, complete with vast orchestra, offstage bands and full-blaze organ.

You never quite know what to expect from the acoustics of the Royal Albert Hall. It was hard to credit the total focus Kazuki Yamada drew from his City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra right from the start of Poulenc's Sinfonietta - a precision which carried through to an exhilarating performance of the Concerto for Two Pianos with a stunning sibling duo.

Forget Tchaikovsky's 1812 Overture with bells, cannons and military bands (most people have, but it was my introduction to the Albert Hall as a child). Respighi's raucous festivals, sparkling fountains and various pines of Rome are where the real spectacular action is, with more music and poetry than Tchaikovsky found in that occasional piece. Who better than John Wilson and his superorchestra Sinfonia of London to urge the cavalcades and weave the magic in the ultimate Proms blockbuster? 

"It was insanely excellent," enthused one of the Järvi Academy Symphony Orchestra's young musicians about the Estonian Festival Orchestra's performance of Nielsen's Third Symphony with its inspirational guiding light, Paavo Järvi. Seated in the balcony behind and above the orchestra, the lucky youthful players rose to their feet the minute the work ended.

Noble intentions and two talented true individuals faced a few obstacles in this admirably-planned Prom. Gianandrea Noseda looked set to reduce the Behemoth aspect of Beethoven's Ninth, especially given a phenomenal, fleet approach to its offspring Mahler Two with a youth orchestra in Georgia back in 2019, but Royal Albert Hall acoustics sometimes got in the way (at least from where I was, towards the back of the hall).

Aaron Copland’s gleaming, monumental Fanfare for the Common Man was written to mark the USA’s entry into World War II. Those thunderous drums and soaring trumpets symbolised the moment when America formally announced itself as the greatest power in the world and its most ardent champion of democracy. How poignant, then, to hear it as a resonant opening to this year’s BBC Proms, in a programme that celebrated America’s 250th anniversary while reminding us that we no longer know what this superpower stands for.

Despite Proms appearances, I'm still not sure that Tom Fetherstonhaugh, mover and shaker of the young Fantasia Orchestra, has yet had quite the limelight he deserves for original programming that reaches out, not to mention for the sleek and romantic sound he got from a relatively small body of strings in this lovely sequence (portamentos as apt for Gershwin as for Mahler). Harry Baker also deserves full credit for a chain of wondrous arrangements.

There was so much to be thankful for throughout the three days I spent at the Aldeburgh Festival this year. First, of course, to have struck gold in so many of the concerts I caught was lucky enough in itself. But the context has never felt more vital as breezes cooled the beach at Aldeburgh and the Alde estuary at Snape while London sweltered in unnaturally high temperatures and a humidity quite different from the fresh airs of the Suffolk coast. 

The Royal Northern College of Music put four of its brightest hopes on show in last night’s big end-of-year concert at the Bridgewater Hall – a composer, a conductor, a solo pianist… and everyone else in its symphony orchestra and chorus.

During the calm evening before an apocalyptic London storm, trumpet virtuoso Håkan Hardenberger delighted the Barbican audience with not only the advertised two showcases for his peerless qualities of tone and expression, but a third as well. Neither Haydn nor Hummel could make it to applaud his deft and dashing accounts of their concertos; but the composer of the encore certainly did.