PROMS 2002BBC: SO/Diemeck

The irony of this Prom was that the music in need of something to accompany it, was played straight, while the music that fascinated in its own right, was visually embellished.

La Noche de los Mayas by the Mexican Silvestre Revueltas was written as the score to a 1938 film about the ancient Mayan civilisation. While my knowledge of pre-war Mexican cinema is probably as extensive as the next man's, I admit I've not seen this particular movie. But I imagine that Revueltas's colourfully atmospheric music serves it very well, and that its simple two-part harmony is advantageously undistracting from the visual images.

As a 45-minute concert piece, though, it just hasn't got enough depth to occupy an attentive mind. Its best section is its finale, when an 11-piece percussion section gets the rumba rhythms going Edmundo Ros-style. I suspect this may not be entirely historically authentic, but my knowledge of pre-Conquistador Central American musicology may lag some way behind the next man's.

Falla's glorious opera La Vida Breve is altogether stronger music, and a concert performance needs no visual interpretation, especially when graced by singers as fine as the beautifully dignified Felicity Palmer and blazing Maria Luisa Tamez, and played with sweeping conviction yet transparent detail by the BBC Symphony Orchestra for conductor Enrique Diemecke.

However, it would be curmudgeonly to complain about the twirl and snap of flamenco dancer Pilar Rioja. Less of an asset was the psychedelic lighting - speaking of which, much more must be done to discourage the countless photography flashes that spoiled this concert.

But given the sanctioned presence in the hall of a professional photographer clicking away very audibly, what else can anyone expect?