With the exception of the Berlin Philharmonic, the world's greatest orchestras are conspicuous by their absence from this year's Proms. There is still, though, an impressive lineup of high-class, if less glamorous, visiting bands, and the first of those on parade was the WDR Symphony Orchestra Cologne under their chief conductor, Semyon Bychkov.

Their programme was framed by Wagner and Richard Strauss, signature composers during Bychkov's regime. The prelude to the first act of Lohengrin, all rapt translucence, was a reminder of the outstanding concert performances of the opera given in Cologne two years ago.

The Alpine Symphony was a superb example not only of the orchestra's unshowy technical excellence, but also of Bychkov's combination of restraint, refinement and discrimination. It's easy enough to make Strauss's last tone poem sprawl and seem garish, but there was a sense of proportion and moments of ravishing tonal beauty here. Viviane Hagner's account of the Mendelssohn Violin Concerto was cast in a similar vein, beautifully phrased, never attention-seeking, and perfectly married to Bychkov's accompaniments.

The huge orchestra required for the Alpine Symphony meant that Bychkov and the WDRSO also drew the short straw, with the UK premiere of Gunther Schuller's Where the Word Ends. Commissioned by the Boston Symphony Orchestra for the composer's 80th birthday five years ago, it's effectively a one-movement symphony lasting 25 minutes. Schuller is hugely respected, but there was no individuality here, just a ramshackle work careering along noisily, referencing a whole range of 20th-century music – Stravinsky, Mahler and Varèse, as well as Miles Davis and Gil Evans – and leaving no trace behind.