Following the interval of this Prom given by the BBC Symphony Orchestra under Marin Alsop, the conductor received an honorary membership of the Royal Philharmonic Society from composer Colin Matthews. Joining a long list of distinguished recipients, starting with Carl Maria von Weber back in 1826, she had already amply demonstrated in the concert's first half the qualities that have made her such an admired musician.

The evening began with two works by John Adams, the larger one being his Saxophone Concerto, premiered in Sydney in 2013 and here receiving its first performance in the UK with its original soloist, Timothy McAllister.

Over half an hour in length, this substantial piece is often subtly infiltrated by melodic inflections from the instrument's alternative lifestyle in the world of jazz; in his programme note, Adams himself mentioned such luminaries as Stan Getz and Charlie Parker as having left their imprints on his musical thinking.

For all that, the result clearly lies within the classical concerto tradition of a display piece whose constant reconfiguring of the relationship between soloist and orchestra prescribes its complex and subtle course. McAllister demonstrated his easy mastery of both its content and style, forming a partnership of equals with Alsop, whose resolute sense of rhythmic initiative and idiomatic command of Adams's ongoing inventiveness were conspicuously displayed, as they had been earlier in the amuse-bouche opener, the same composer's tricksy but brilliantly effective Short Ride in a Fast Machine.

Forming the second half, Mahler's First Symphony also had its strengths – especially in the vernal freshness of the opening movement, the heavy, folksy tread of the Ländler, and the elation of the close; but the extremes of its emotional journey were less convincingly charted.