Proms traditionalists concerned by the absence of Beethoven's Ninth Symphony last season - the concert had to be cancelled because of an errant sprinkler system - will have been gratified by its inclusion twice this year.

Nicholas Kenyon's final flourish as director of the Proms was heralded by an impressive fanfare of high-profile publicity: news bulletins and live television coverage all guaranteeing that not a seat was to be had on Friday night in the Royal Albert Hall.

Jiri Belohlavek conducted the BBC Symphony Orchestra in a performance of the Beethoven that avoided undue grandiloquence and monumentality without any sacrifice of weight or intensity of expression. Sharply articulatedrhythms ensured that the massive-opening movement and the dynamic Scherzo acquired a powerful momentum, while the quiet rapture of the Adagio was supremely eloquent.

The members of the BBC Symphony and Philharmonia Choruses made a tremendous impression by dispensing with their scores and singing out lustily into the auditorium. A pity the otherwise fine team of soloists didn't do the same, though bass René Pape did launch his opening invocation to joy unimpeded by a score - and all the more forcefully for that. Maria Haan, Patricia Bardon and Paul Groves were largely effective too, though their thunder was stolen by the choral entry at "Freude, schone Gotterfunken", which erupted like the bursting of a dam.

A distinct rupture with tradition came in Paul Watkins's wonderfully expressive performance of Elgar's Cello Concerto, which rejected the heroic gestures and big-toned hyperromantic effusions of Jacqueline du Pré (and her many followers) in favour of intimacy and searching introspection.

Too little space to do justice to last night's concert: surely the most extraordinary event ever presided over by John Eliot Gardiner. A sequence of dances from the stage works of Rameau was performed by his own English Baroque Soloists and Monteverdi Choir in conjunction with the Buskaid Soweto String Ensemble and two dance groups: the Compagnie Roussat-Lubek from France and Dance for All from South Africa.

Although both Dance for All and Buskaid (founded and directed by Rosemary Nalden) are involved in outreach projects with young underprivileged Africans, their standards are so high that they could perform creditably alongside the top professionals.

The choreography was sexy, funny and exhilarating. Already broadcast twice by BBC4, this concert has provided the BBC with some unique footage - in whatever order they choose to transmit it.