If you'd been in the Albert hall on Saturday night you would have witnessed (at least in your mind's eye) the grim figure of Death playing his fiddle to dancing skeletons. You would also have seen broomsticks slopping water about and may also have felt trapped by the force of destiny. In fact, the supernatural played a big part in this NSO concert.

There was also plenty of wizardry of a purely musical variety. As well as Saint-Saens' Danse Macabre, Dukas' Sorcerer's Apprentice and Verdi's overture there was the extraordinary transmutation of Gershwin's Rhapsody in Blue into a work for trumpet and orchestra. Gerald Douglas was the soloist conjuring up enough spectacular virtuosity to make you (almost) forget that it had been written for piano.

Most of the programme in this imaginatively devised concert was firmly rooted in stories and the playing of the NSO, conducted by Derek Williams with his natural instinct for drama and tonal colour, matched the flamboyance and theatricality of the music. This was just as true of their high spirits in Glazunov's The Seasons and Mussorgsky's Gopak as it was in Sibelius' melancholy Valse Triste and Ravel's strangely other-worldly La Valse.