Prom 30, National Youth Orchestra, NYO Inspire, Bloch, Jackson review - sheer youthful joy, passion and precision

Let’s begin at the end. Can the Paris Olympics' closing ceremony offer anything as classy or joyous as 260 musicians aged 13 to 18 singing the French carol-plus-farandole finale of Bizet’s L'Arlésienne music?* This encore also made Proms history as a unique riposte to the Simón Bolivar Youth Orchestra’s instrument-twirling Bernstein “Mambo”. And what a sequel to a Mahler One brimming with energy, masterfully negotiated by conductor Alexandre Bloch.

Range rather than cohesion was the name of this supremely high-spirited game. Wagner's Overture to The Flying Dutchman underlined the discipline: Bloch turned corners neatly, impressively so as the sea calmed down a bit for the Sailors' Chorus, and kept a huge brass ensemble from blaring. Missy Mazzoli's Orpheus Undone underlined the seriousness of intent. Her texture changes are abrupt, demanding and often finely layered, though foreground "hooks" rarely turned up and, as in Mazzoli's oddly empty-feeling opera Breaking the Waves, what lies beneath can't be discerned. The pinpoint-precise playing, especially magical from pianist Alexander Kwon, couldn't keep at bay the nagging questions "why?" and "what for?" The purpose of Dani Howard's Proms commission Three, Four AND...was very clear: to engage not just the 160 orchestral members but also 100 players from the free NYO Inspire programme, now 10 years old. String groups were dotted around the boxes, though to be honest the surround-effect didn't work until wind and brass came down the stalls steps to intone the "As One" theme tune of this summer's programme (pictured above). It all felt a bit like over-extended TV or film music, but the involvement was the point, an awe-inspiting feat of co-ordination. 

There was a change of conductor for the Howard spectacular. it was clear that former NYO violinist Tess Jackson (pictured below) has everything it takes to succeed as conductor – engaging manner, clear gestures, centred authority. She might have been given the Dutchman Overture too, but let's hope the NYO invites her back to negotiate repertoire classics. Bloch was a welcome returnee, stepping in to take over the course from an apparently over-booked Nathalie Stutzmann: great news, because in January 2023 he conducted the NYO in the most vivid, finely profiled Strauss Also sprach Zarathustra I've ever heard. "Of Joys and Passions", the Nietzsche-inspired title of the most impressively clear sequence then, could apply to this Mahler One. Out of the refined mists of Mahler's nature-vision in the first movement erupted a very fast but always nimble romp. Bloch paced the surge towards the big climax so masterfully that the surprise shout as the horns bring back a midpoint theme (fig. 26 in the score, if you're interested) felt absolutely right, and gave an extra charge to the overflow of high spirits. Those continued in the Scherzo, where the Austrian/Viennese Ländler/Waltz string swoons sounded much more idiomatic than in many a recent performance.

The conductor relates in a short interview for the NYO's As One programme his disbelieving response as a young cello player to the funeral march's move from the tune we know as "Frère Jacques" to klezmer music; no surprise then that the popular strain sounded very naughty last night. And the cymbal crash which breaks in to announce the "cry of a deeply wounded heart" at the connected finale made my neighbour visibly jump out of her seat. Pacing is all in this ambitiously extended movement of a young composer in his early 20s; the angst suits teenagers, but they still have to focus, and the thread held through to the uproariously rapid final triumph. No surprise that those in the audience who weren't already standing shot to their feet at the end. And then there was that singing, hallmark of the NYO's recent years – unforgettable the revolutionary songs delivered around and between the movements of Shostakovich 11 at the beginning of 2020 – raised to the level of a mammoth Swingle Singers group and given a happy French context. Bloch would not have regretted missing much of the action in his native capital during the intensive summer-school rehearsals. If you weren't there in the hall, watch on BBC Four tonight (or thereafter) and catch the feeling that all's right with the world and the future of music.

*This review first appeared on Sunday morning. The Paris spectacle didn't come anywhere close. I mean, Tom Cruise as the climax? Really?

• Listen to this Prom on BBC Sounds and watch on BBC Four
• BBC Proms 2024 runs until 14 September 
• More Proms reviews on theartsdesk