The Proms, Desert Island Discs, Sir David Attenborough – how many Great British institutions can the BBC expect the Albert Hall to contain at once? The radio programme took over the Proms for a 70th birthday shindig hosted, naturally, by Kirsty Young. Some former castaways came to talk – a lot, in John Sessions's case. Some – including Bryn Terfel, standing in for Willard White – came to perform some of the most popular musical choices. Some – such as organist Wayne Marshall, who galumphed gleefully through Bach's Toccata and Fugue in D minor – did both.
Musically, things were varied. Under conductor Keith Lockhart, the BBC Concert Orchestra nailed the light music but was pedestrian in Prokofiev and workmanlike in the first movement of Beethoven's Emperor Concerto, although pianist Peter Donohoe provided captivating pianissimos in the latter. An excerpt from Samuel Coleridge-Taylor's Song of Hiawatha, decently sung by Terfel and the Huddersfield Choral Society, seemed a slightly half-hearted nod to the composer in his centenary year, but the choir shone later in Handel's Hallelujah Chorus.
Cellist Nicolas Altstaedt offered a big-boned sound in the first movement of Elgar's Concerto, apparently unfazed by being preceded by a recording of an interview with the late, legendary Jacqueline du Pré. Best of all was soprano Ailish Tynan, whose two Puccini arias showed a gleaming voice now ready for the Italian opera heroines.
The format was awkward, not least because of the need to feature non-classical music. A closing medley of the eight most popular song choices – a list topped by Je Ne Regrette Rien, to which Anna-Jane Casey brought her best Edith Piaf – worked well; an earlier Beatles selection less so. If one loved Eleanor Rigby for its sparing lyrics and sparser string quartet, being washed ashore with a souped-up orchestral version would send you nuts far quicker than the desert-island solitude.
• Available to listen again on iPlayer until 10 September. If you're at any Prom this summer, tweet your thoughts about it to @guardianmusic using the hashtag #proms and we'll pull what you've got to say into one of our weekly roundups – or leave your comments below.
