Omer Meir Wellber becomes chief conductor of the BBC Philharmonic this month, an appointment that, judging by his Proms debut (Prom 7), has already put a rocket under the orchestra. His reading of Schumann’s single-movement Symphony No 4 felt like a statement of intent. The energetic 37-year-old was in total command, leaping in the air like a tennis player to emphasise an entry, crouching down to demand a pianissimo, reaching out to almost touch the music at the end of his fingertips. And his programming is interesting. He paired Mozart’s Piano Concerto No 15 in B flat major, played with expressive delicacy by Yeol Eum Son, with his fellow Israeli Paul Ben-Haim’s Symphony No 1 in the first half, and Schoenberg’s Five Orchestral Pieces with the Schumann in the second.

The Prommers roared their approval at the close of Ben-Haim’s symphony, written in 1940 but here getting its first Proms outing. A refugee from Nazi Germany, Ben-Haim settled in the nascent Israel, achieving an east-west synthesis in style, and while claiming his first symphony was not programmatic, acknowledged that “the terrible rampage of underworld forces” against the Jewish people had a powerful impact on the piece. It’s all too evident in the terrifying force of the outer movements, the music moving relentlessly to massive, ear-splitting climaxes, thrillingly played by the newly inspired Philharmonic.