This was the first of two concerts celebrating the 50th anniversary of the pioneering, Australian-born composer and arranger Percy Grainger. Although only two of Grainger's works featured, they were central to this programme, which began with Elgar and ended with Richard Strauss's rambunctious tone poem about the "merry pranks" of Till Eulenspiegel – the kind of programme, in short, you wouldn't find outside the Proms.

Grainger's arrangement of an Irish Tune from County Derry (aka Londonderry Air) was a highlight – the BBC Singers demonstrating that precision and beauty of tone are still at a premium when it comes to folk settings. The other Grainger piece was the uproarious In a Nutshell suite, whose bewilderingly varied four-movement plan employs various exotic percussion and a variety of original folk- and music-hall-inspired melodies, all combined with an ear for experimental harmony strikingly prescient of much postwar music. The score was executed with evident relish by the BBC Symphony Orchestra and Andrew Davis.

It was lovely to see Davis back at the orchestra's helm, and the audience applauded him like a returning hero. They clearly remember the long years when he ruled the arena waves with a style and generosity none of the orchestra's subsequent conductors have been able to match. Till Eulenspiegel was suitably riotous, while still polished. The Elgar violin concerto, on the other hand, was disappointing, Tasmin Little's indifferent traversal of the solo part plagued by skewed intonation (it was very hot in the hall, which can't have helped). More serious, though, was the disconcerting lack of drive and focus, which sapped energy from a score that badly needs it to avoid sounding amorphous. Even Davis – who could probably conduct himself out of a bear pit – seemed stuck for ideas.

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