Music like this has never come from the orchestra pit of the Auditorium. Strange combinations of soumnds that seem to come from street pianos, New Year's Eve horns, harmonicas and old-fashioned musical beer steins that play when you lift them up. Mr Prokofieff waves his shirt-sleeved arms and the sounds increase.

There is nothing difficult about this music - that is, unless you are unfortunately enough to be a music critic. But to the untutored ear there is a charming capriciousness about the sounds from the orchestra. Cadenzas pirouette in the treble. Largos toboggan in the bass. It sounds like the picture of a crazy Christmas tree drawn by a happy child. Which is a most peculiar way for music to sound.