Each of london’s five symphony orchestras has performed in the first five weeks of the Proms. Comparisons would be invidious as they naturally have not played the same piece, but it does demonstrate a rich, thriving culture. Each plays less often than it did 20 years ago perhaps, but freelance work is regular. Players come from all over the world, many having trained here at the conservatoires. London, one could say, is the centre of the musical world.

The Philharmonia Orchestra was founded in London as a recording orchestra after the Second World War, when the first piece in Prom 32 was written. Schoenberg’s A Survivor from Warsaw has a dark filmic quality with a dramatic narration performed by senior baritone David Wilson-Johnson replacing indisposed actor Simon Russell Beale. Johnson’s survivor told with gruff horror how, concussed, he had heard his fellow Jews singing defiantly the Sh’ma Yisroel, an elaboration of the First Commandment, as they faced execution. In a line behind the orchestra, the 30 professional gentlemen of the Philharmonia Voices intoned Schoenberg’s concluding chorus with swelling vehemence.