A FAIRLY unconventional concert wherein mainly grandparents (a handful with grandchildren) were regaled with fairy tales, or at least the bare-bones thereof, by author, actor, playwright and, by his own tongue-in-cheek admission…..‘clever Dick’, George Layton.

It’s not too often we have a composer on the rostrum directing one of their own compositions, so to have Debbie Wiseman and The Fairy Tale of the Selfish Giant (Oscar Wilde) with Layton’s clear narration, made this a special event. The music is highly descriptive and would make an excellent concert suite in its own right. There are plenty of evocative solos, all superbly played here, and Wiseman’s melodic gifts were a fruitful source of enjoyment.

Humperdinck’s claim to fame is now down to his opera Hansel and Gretel of which the Orchestral Fantasie, a concatenation of wonderful melodies; simple, charming folk tunes, has much substance. The lovely ‘prayer’ was beautifully evoked by conductor Maxime Tortelier.

Standing tall, often in Eiffel Tower pose, there was nothing inflexible about Tortelier’s lucid direction of the BSO in two of Tchaikovsky’s ballets. The epitome of fairy-tale music-in-motion, excerpts from Sleeping Beauty and the Nutcracker were as welcome as Christmas itself. And if audience numbers did not make this concert a roaring success-the giant of music and his little helpers left a magnificent impression.