A little light music

In an interview published in the programme for this and Saturday's all Brahms Proms, Bernard Haitink decribes what he doesn't like about old fashioned ways about conducting Brahms. "...a bit like taking a dog for a walk and letting the dog stop at every tree" he says, criticising what he sees as a stop start approach to the composer. He prefers to "work towards a Brahms who is lighter on his feet". With the Chamber of Orchestra of Europe at his disposal he was in a perfect position to demonstrate this lightness of touch.Chamber sized Brahms in the Albert Hall might lead one to think the sound would be swallowed up in such vast a space but there was none of it. The COE strings produced such a rich body of sound and with spot on balances the extra numbers of a full orchestra was never missed. It was all pluses and no minuses. The smaller…