In sight of the summit

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Perhaps he is attracted to negativity. His Naive and Sentimental Music is anything but. It is a three-movement, 50-minute symphony in all but name. Rhythm derives from its steady mathematics. Minimalism, a negative reaction to modernist complexities, betrays itself in the karate-chop beat and one-note winds.

The slow movement is based on a tune halfway between Daisy Daisy and Close Encounters. A slow twanging amplified guitar cuts through and the back desks fiddle alone. The automaton pulse resists sentiment. The finale stutters its bars with pop-art repetitiveness. It is Andy Warhol in sound.

Trends and revolutions in visual art come later to music. Debussy was Monet in sound. Soprano Felicity Lott sang his sensuous Le livre de Baudelaire with hints of colour and a weightless line that mesmerised the hall. Isolated sighs of pleasure escaped from the stalls.

Adams's orchestration was a little heavy-handed but Debussy's of Satie's gymnopedies was a model of subtlety not matched by players who hit accents too hard. Still it was Adams's job to regulate volume and speed. He beat every beat and set Ravel's Alborada del gracioso off too fast, embarrassing the trumpets. His arm must be aching this morning.

Prom 62: BBC Symphony Orchestra/John Adams