Brass Day was the sort of blowout the Proms thrive on, with hundreds of performers, dozens of soloists and six conductors, celebrating four centuries of brass in all its glory. Both concerts opened with Judith Bingham's fanfare, Ziggurat; if the first performance seemed splashy, added percussion brought the second into focus.

Peter Wiegold's He is Armoured Without, also a premiere, was anything but focused, yet with players in every nook and cranny it had an unruly magnificence. At first there was an eerie sense of music emerging from nothing but the piece quickly gathered momentum and drama, exemplified by the musical battle between the Coldstream Guards' Fanfare Trumpets at one end of the hall and the two-metre-long karnay horns of Uzbek musicians at the other.

Other star turns included His Majesty's Sagbutts and Cornetts with the Toccata from Monteverdi's Orfeo, one of the first and most exhilarating of all opera overtures, and Hans Werner Henze's Ragtimes and Habaneras, the Grimethorpe Colliery Band showing that British brass bands can play sexy. The day closed with Janacek's Sinfonietta, Charles Mackerras drawing finesse and grandeur from the BBC Philharmonic.

Perhaps the highlight was 20 minutes of mayhem from the Uzbek musicians, their horns proud and loud, awakening the Albert Hall echo to thrilling effect.