Asian spice livens up traditional English fare

Summer in London is dominated by the world's biggest music festival, the Proms. Every night until September 11, the Royal Albert Hall hosts some of the most exciting music and musicians on the planet.

There's a strong Asian theme throughout the 74 concerts at this year's festival, with music by Tan Dun, Zhou Long, Bright Sheng and Zhao Jiping, and pieces by western composers who have been influenced by the east, such as Debussy, Mahler and Britten.

The first night of this year's Proms was a very English affair, with works by Elgar and Holst, although the opening spot was awarded to J.S. Bach's thrilling Toccata and Fugue, played on the hall's magnificently restored organ. Martin Neary looked tiny in his white dinner jacket as he sat at the keyboard of this powerful, 9,999-pipe colossus. After Toccata, the Fugue was taken up by the BBC Symphony Orchestra in an arrangement by the Proms' founder, Sir Henry Wood - an interesting touch for opening night.

In Wood's arrangement, the austere majesty of the organ solo was replaced with pots of orchestral colour in an over-the-top romp that was, nevertheless, delightful on this occasion. Next came Elgar's The Music Makers, a cantata for contralto and orchestra based on a setting of poems by Arthur O'Shaughnessy, whose verse gave the composer plenty of scope for musical development.

Music Makers is one of Elgar's later works, written when the composer felt his powers were in decline, and distinguished by quotations from his own oeuvres embedded in the piece. There were pieces from his Enigma Variations, The Dream of Gerontius, Sea Pictures and both his symphonies.

Music Makers came alive with the entrance of mezzo-soprano Lorraine Hunt Lieberson who, along with conductor Leonard Slatkin, represented the American side of this very British occasion. She lifted the piece from the vapid mists of O'Shaughnessy's verse and sang the opening and closing lines with a clear conviction that lifted the music to higher realms. The words 'We are the music makers and we are the dreamer of dreams' are appropriate for the beginning of this great music festival.