Vexations and Devotions, a new work by the Australian composer Brett Dean, had its European premiere in the BBC Symphony Orchestra's Prom under David Robertson. The vexations are those of modern life. Dean's first movement sets Dorothy Porter's poem Watching Others, about the loneliness of television viewers; the second is a heavy satire on automated telephone systems; while the third incorporates the composer's own compilation of business jargon. "You can count on us/ 100%/ To globally coordinate excellent/and cutting edge, cost effective methods of empowerment," sang the BBC Symphony Chorus at one point.

The problem with Dean's litany of vexations, which also involved the Australian youth choir Gondwana Voices, is that hearing about them in this 35-minute "sociological cantata" is almost as tedious as experiencing the real thing. There is colour in Dean's wide-ranging orchestral writing and spirit in his choral work, but there is no transcendence, not even in the presumably devotional setting of Michael Leunig's The Path to Your Door, which the youth choir sings at the end as a reaffirmation of human values against those of corporate-speak. The piece seems a laborious and overblown construct with which to attack the kind of irritations everyone dislikes anyway.

But there was transcendence in the second half in the shape of Beethoven's Seventh Symphony. Robertson had the good idea to run the first two movements almost together, as well as the last two, making the music's propulsion well-nigh irresistible. He maintained a firm control of his well-chosen tempi, and the orchestra responded with playing that was alert and - to use a word Dean singled out for contempt - empowered.

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