You could not accuse David Robertson of lying down on the job. The BBC Symphony Orchestra’s principal guest conductor chops the air with his arms and sends piercing looks left, right and centre; he’s like a wind-up toy that never winds down. Friday's Prom gave him much to be exercised about, starting with Stravinsky’s final ballet, Agon. Brittle, spiky, eccentrically scored (violin, xylophone and two trombones, anybody?), it’s not a piece meant for the Albert Hall’s acoustic porridge. But if details got lost, at least Robertson kept it fleet, light, fit for a dancer’s steps. And the orchestra’s brass shone brilliantly.

After that Robertson had his hands full with Tchaikovsky. We all did, with three works topped by Francesca da Rimini, neurotic and ferocious in its outer sections. Still, not everything followed that mode, nor did the concert’s soloists.

Stephen Hough, called upon for the wayward Concert Fantasia (last heard at the Proms in 1903), offered crystal clarity, a springing gait and radiant virtuosity, all in a rather dubious cause. Steven Isserlis and his cello, meanwhile, set sail with soulful indulgence upon the much more sensible Variations on a Rococo Theme. At times he smudged his notes with passion; not, though, in the melancholy of variation three, beautifully shaped and sustained. The band survived both encounters well.

If that Prom left you feeling queasy, the Netherlands Wind Ensemble’s gig of belated Proms premieres wouldn’t have provided an aspirin. Joy popped in briefly with Steve Martland’s Beat the Retreat, the happy result of a Purcell ground bass going clubbing. But then up rose the monolith of Louis Andriessen’s 1970s De Staat, music’s equivalent of the decade’s brutalist architecture. At least Cornelis de Bondt’s bizarre Doors Closed, a postmodern assault on Purcell and Beethoven, left an emotional residue. Throughout, the Dutch ensemble, conducted principally by Lucas Vis, were beyond compare.

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