Prom 38, Royal Albert Hall, London/ Radio 3

We've not heard nearly so much of Henryk Górecki since all that business with his Third Symphony almost 10 years ago. And the Proms themselves have scarcely participated in the aftermath of this, probably due to the association of the success of this Symphony of Sorrowful Songs with Classic FM. Also, afterLittle Requiem for a Polka in 1993, Górecki seems to have dried up as a composer. Whatever the reasons, an unfinished third string quartet and a large-scale oratorio on the Polish St Wojciech have been hanging fire for some time.

Salve, sidus polonorum, the work for chorus and ensemble that received its British premiere at the Proms last Saturday, actually forms part of this unfinished oratorio. Familiar as the work of the composer of the infamous Third, the new work is, however, uninspired stuff.

The first, and longest, movement turns the Latin text and melody of a 15th-century Magnificat antiphon into slow, protracted and very repetitive music for chorus and tubular bells. The second spoils a fairly inn-ocuous setting for chorus and organ of a Polish text of the composer's own with the measured tread of two pianos and tubular bells in octaves, which curiously mute the impact of the voices. The final movement, "Salve, sidus polonorum" itself, is a faster, but terminally banal, setting of incessantly repeated alleluias – the kind of thing that ought to get a teenager low marks at A-level.

If Górecki's best days are indeed over, that shouldn't deprive the Proms audiences of his best works. How aboutRefrain, the "Copernican" Second Symphony, or Beatus vir? Or, if a real blast from his modernist past is required, Scontri?

The BBC Symphony Chorus and assorted instrumentalists under Stephen Jackson did their best with the new Górecki. Around it, a curious and somewhat unsatisfactory programme was assembled – apparently on the basis of giving as many performers as possible something else to do. Choral Schütz and Brahms were underwhelming in the strangely unreverberant Albert Hall acoustic, which can make even this 100-strong choir sound weak. David Goode was given the thankless task of supplying a harmony and counterpoint exercise by Brahms on the erratic old Albert Hall organ.

The final stages of this concert were the best: a wittily pointed account, by Philip Moore and Simon Crawford-Phillips, of Stravinsky's Concerto for two pianos, which almost succeeded in defying the acoustics; and early and late choral Schoenberg, especially the dramatic and moving De profundis.