The juxtaposition of the familiar and the unfamiliar is a hallmark of the Proms as last night's concert demonstrated. The rarity was Vaughan Williams's Piano Concerto, last heard at the Proms in 1939. The warhorse was Rimsky-Korsakov's Sheherazade.

The Vaughan Williams concerto has only a couple of dozen bars for piano alone and is no vehicle for virtuosic display. But Ashley Wass beautifully caught its introspective quality, not least in the first-movement cadenza which, eschewing all tradition, taps a lyrical, ruminative vein.

To witness Sheherazade in concert is to be reminded just how astonishingly resourceful an orchestrator Rimsky-Korsakov was. He needed only a modest-sized orchestra, with few exotic accessories, to evoke the dazzling colours and sounds of the orient.

The BBC Philharmonic's leader, Yuri Torchinsky, survived a wobbly start to bring the mix of technical wizardry and sensuality that the role of Sheherazade requires. Other orchestra members, notably John Bradbury (clarinet), Jonathan Goodall (horn) and David Chatwin (bassoon), contributed equally fine solo work, and Vassily Sinaisky moulded his players into eloquent storytellers, unfolding the final festival of Baghdad, sea and shipwreck in thrilling style.

By this time, the violent thunderstorm overhead that had all but obliterated the quietest moments of the Vaughan Williams had passed.

One was left to muse on Rimsky-Korsakov's ability to conjure up a balmy Arabian night on a wet and windy Tuesday evening in London town.

www.bbc.co.uk/proms.