A trio of great Parisian churches was the unifying factor at last night's rewarding Prom: the Madeleine, where Saint-Saëns was organist, the Trinité, where Messiaen held the same post and Notre-Dame, musical home of Olivier Latry, superb soloist in works by these two masters of the French organ tradition.

Saint-Saëns wrote his Symphony No3 "with organ" for London in 1886. A capacity audience listened attentively to the warmth and attack of the Orchestre Philharmonique de Radio France, with Latry providing gorgeous textures and pedal notes so low you detected them only because the whole building seemed to vibrate.

Earlier, the brilliant Latry played Messiaen's vast L'Ascension, for solo organ, with virtuosity, solemnity and Gallic wit, not a concept usually associated with this composer. Then brass, woodwind and percussion gave a spellbinding account of his Et exspecto resurrectionem mortuorum, perceptively conducted by Myung-Whun Chung. This meditation on death and resurrection is so stark and threatening it's as if the sky is thronged with ravens banging at the gates of heaven. Climaxes are so loud, even the players cover their ears.

Adding inadvertent drama, in the final massive chord, a gong flew off its stand just as the percussionist was beating the hell out of it. With perfect froideur, he switched to a different one and thrashed on. As for this year's lurid Albert Hall décor, if you ask me it's more death than resurrection.