BBC Symphony Orchestra/Saraste
Royal Albert Hall, London ****

Christian Lindberg's determination to establish the trombone as a credible solo instrument has already produced more than 70 specially commissioned concertos from different composers. On Friday he appeared with the BBC Symphony Orchestra at the Proms for the British premiere of a work written for him by Luciano Berio last year. SOLO - the capital letters seem de rigueur - was the central panel in a programme conducted by Jukka-Pekka Saraste that also included Sibelius's En Saga and Tchaikovsky's Pathétique Symphony.

An important part of Lindberg's mission is to bring gravitas to the image of his instrument. The common perception of the trombone has been that of a poor relation to its orchestral colleagues, getting comically out of its depth when asked to do anything lyrical or expressive. Berio made use of that tendency towards absurdity early in his career, in his solo-trombone Sequenza V; that 1965 work required the soloist to act as well as play and its bittersweet humour was conceived as a tribute to the Italian clown Grock.

But in SOLO there is no clowning around. The nearest this 20-minute movement comes to theatricality is at the climax of spectacular bravura passage for the soloist, which is saluted by a derisory cheer from the members of the orchestra. Otherwise, it's the ability of the trombone to sing that Berio concentrates upon. He relies on Lindberg's astonishing technique, and his ability to sustain huge arching phrases without ever seeming to take a breath, to project that line while the orchestra spins a web of glinting, intricate textures around it.

All the familiar fingerprints of Berio's concertante works are here. Kindred instruments in the orchestra - three trombones and a tuba - mediate between the soloist and the orchestra, while horns and trumpets reinforce the brassy brilliance of the scoring. Sometimes the solo trombone duets with the principal trombone behind him, elsewhere he is shadowed by a bass clarinet, or eclipsed by interjections from the rest of the woodwind. The strings are generally used to fill in the harmonic background.

This is not the conventional concerto confrontation between a soloist and the orchestra. Berio creates a much more symbiotic relationship between the two. Everything grows organically from the endlessly sustained note, a D, that begins the work and to which it returns at the end - pitches expand around it, chords are filled in and just occasionally references to past masterpieces flit past. The whole process has that effort less certainty and musicality that are Berio's very special gift. SOLO is not one of his greatest works, but still a fine example of his originality and craftsmanship.

It's also a superb demonstration of what Lindberg can do, and what he is achieving as the world's only full-time solo trombonist. His playing was astounding, not only in its sheer technical completeness but also in its musicality. The work is a celebration of lyricism, and he is a master of that, just as much as Berio.