JAAP van Zweden was the CBSO's guest conductor on Tuesday, when the programme begin with Dvorak's excellent Scherzo Capriccioso.

This is Dvorak at his tuneful best, and though only a short piece, lasting 12 minutes, he managed to include a whole range of moods and tones, from Czech dance rhythms to beautiful melodies.

I had never heard Szymanowski's first violin concerto before, and indeed, I shall not rush to hear it again, though I did enjoy Nikolaj Znaider's sensitive performance.

This huge man towered over most of the orchestra, and especially the conductor (a small man, but he was standing on a rostrum!).

Znaider made his violin sing, at times reminding me of a bird. Much of the music is played extremely high, but Znaider never lost the tone, and it never sounded squeaky, as is sometimes the case, and the cadenza, actually written by Pavel Kochanski, was beautiful.

There are passages of beautiful melody, with differing motifs, but this is still a little too modern for my taste. After a quite exhilarating section, the gentle ending came as quite a surprise.

I was disappointed with the highlights from Prokofiev's Romeo and Juliet, not because of the CBSO, who played superbly, as usual, but the items were not played in the same order as they are in the ballet.

We heard Prokofiev's suite two and then went on to items from suite one, but for me it didn't work.

I know this ballet extremely well, and was picturing the scenes as each item was played, so found it hard to comprehend Juliet's death and the ballet ending in the middle of the work, then going on to the balcony scene later.

Of course I enjoyed the music, from the opening, the wonderful Montagues and Capulets, to the heart-rending music that accompanies Tybald's death.

VJS