The impact of one person drawing horsehair across four catgut strings in a pianissimo trill while 6,000 people strain their ears in silent attention takes some beating.

It's a spectator sport every bit as engaging and breathtaking as anything the Olympics can offer, especially when the bow is wielded as athletically as that of 25-year old German violinist Julia Fischer, the soloist in Brahms's Violin Concert in D major, with the Netherlands Philharmonic Orchestra conducted by Yakov Kreizberg. The orchestra gave excellent support (despite a few intonation blips) adroitly directed by Kreizberg, whose podium manner is so dapper you expect him to break into a military two-step or an Astaire twirl at any moment.

That buoyant mood was apparent earlier in the bright folk-melodies of Dvorak's Sixth Symphony. It's not his most incisive work but Kreizberg kept it taut, allowing spacious liberties in the Trio so the woodwind soloists could enjoy their freedom.

The Prom opened with a rarity, the jubilant overture Cyrano de Bergerac by Dutch composer Johan Wagenaar. It had cryptic links with Monday's Ethel Smyth curio: both composers were taught by Brahms's friend Heinrich von Herzogenberg, arguably not the greatest teacher given their subsequent modest reputations.