Never underestimate the importance of the humble triangle player. Or in this case triangle players, for there were two Philharmonia percussionists for whom the start of Peter Eötvös's DoReMi had to be delayed. Perhaps they were perfecting their part backstage, and it proved to be a vital one: the very opening of the work.

The title of Eötvös’s Second Violin Concerto is a near-anagram of the violinist for whom it was written: Midori. But it also stands for the first three notes of the major scale, prominent, in all manner of inversions and permutations, throughout the concerto. Eötvös deploys such building blocks with virtuosity and a fertile imagination. With Midori as the sympathetic, sure-fingered soloist, the concerto unfolded as an attractively lyrical as well as impressively structured work. Especially original is the third-movement cadenza in which the fantasy of the soloist is anchored by first a solo viola, and then by a succession of instruments including, yes, the triangle.

Those wedded to the monumental Bruckner interpretations of such conductors as Gunter Wand or Bernard Haitink may have been taken aback by the swift tempi of Esa-Pekka Salonen in his account of the Seventh Symphony. But there were positive advantages. Chief among them was the way material such as the rhythmic third subject of the first movement, or the Trio of the third — both positively jaunty in Salonen’s hands — sounded natural (in the wrong hands it can sound lumbering and pedestrian).

Convincing, too, at these tempi were the more lyrical passages, the arches of their phrasing more easily apprehended by the ear. And somehow Salonen managed to find space for the work’s big climaxes.

An unorthodox but persuasive reading, admirably executed by the Philharmonia.

Available on BBC iPlayer; the festival runs until September 7 (0845 401 5040, bbc.co.uk/proms).