LET'S accentuate the positive.

Conductor Fabien Gabel and the RSNO did a superior job on Berlioz's Rob Roy Overture on Saturday night. Of course there is no disguising the fact that Berlioz hadn't thought it through (and probably didn't want to write it in the first place). And of course you can't paper over the cracks where the composer stumbles from one theme into the next, comes across good ideas that will find a more fruitful environment in a later piece, and frankly gets himself boxed into several corners.

But with an acute awareness of Berlioz's phenomenal orchestration (beyond the obviously lumpen bits) clarity of direction, a feeling for momentum and accumulation, with a sheer sense of fun, Gabel and the RSNO confirmed my own instinct: that inside this wee shambles which Berlioz thought he had incinerated there is a hugely enjoyable musical experience waiting to get out. And wasn't Zoe Kitson's cor anglais playing of the nascent Harold in Italy theme just drop-dead gorgeous?

Also gorgeous was Lisa Milne's singing of a set from Joseph Canteloube's Songs of the Auvergne, though the intimacy of her vocal performance was a bit at odds with both the scale of the venue and the overt richness of Gabel's accompaniment: many found much of it inaudible. From my advantaged seat I had to strain a bit myself.

Inaudibility, alas, was a feature lacking in a serious and purposeful account of Cesar Franck's Symphony in D minor. Who let the brass out? That noise was like the old days. And it did nothing to enhance the reputation among cynics of Franck's hoary old one-tune lumberer.

HHH