Youthful punch and mature wisdom: it's an attractive combination, and helped to bring a full house to Monday's Prom with the Gustav Mahler Jugendorchester (none of its players is over 26) and the conductor Sir Colin Davis - veteran enough to be their grandfather.

For half the concert the sparks never quite flew. Beethoven's Violin Concerto is famous for its lyrical expanse and lack of dramatic tussles; but Davis and the violinist Nikolaj Znaider proved Olympian to excess. Unruffled speeds dominated the first movement, tipping almost into torpor as Znaider, a superb and subtle technican, s-l-o-w-l-y emerged from the cadenza. Such quiet moments found the players at their most focused and beguiling - attractions less apparent when they strode fortissimo. Overall I missed ardour and colour. The audience's reaction, I should document, was hot, verging on the incendiary.

Youth and maturity clicked much more satisfactorily in Sibelius's Second Symphony. Youth gave us the fresh woodwinds, so perky traversing the opening theme, and the jubilant reserves of power. Maturity gave us Davis's firm grip on the structure and his knowing tightening of the screws whenever the music needed to blaze. Brass, double-basses and timpani, arrayed at the back, created a formidable sound, ideal for Sibelius's drama of anguish and triumph.

All change for the late-night Prom featuring the BBC Singers, conducted by David Hill, and the sitar player Nishat Khan. In the interests of understanding there was definitely value in surrounding Messiaen's Cinq Rechants with Indian ragas and Renaissance French polyphony. But only cacophony was gained by letting Khan improvise while most of the polyphony unfolded. Indian magic finally flourished when Khan and colleagues embarked alone on their hypnotic night-time raga; better music for the soul than the potty, irritating Cinq Rechants, which needed a lighter, more airborne sound.

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