First Night of the Proms review: 'who thought this was a good idea?'

First Night of the Proms - (Chris Christodoulou/BBC)

Commissioned for the opening concert of the 2025 BBC Proms, Errollyn Wallen’s The Elements is an exuberant piece welcoming to a broad audience not necessarily predisposed to classical, let alone contemporary, music. According to Wallen, the piece was partly inspired by her experience of playing alongside the bassist Steve Lewinson of Simply Red and is a celebration of “the fundamentals of music: life and love”.

Presumably intended as an audience-friendly outburst of joy, it doesn’t pretend to anything much more.