It was an inspired touch to cast Alasdair Malloy as the narrator at the Brighton Philharmonic Orchestra's first family concert on Sunday morning.

He set the scene brilliantly for Roald Dahl's poems Dirty Beasts, to music by University of Sussex professor of music Martin Butler.

Malloy also narrated Saint-Saens's Carnival Of The Animals and Prokofiev's Peter And The Wolf. My six-year-old granddaughter Eloise was mesmerised from beginning to end.

This and the afternoon's more "adult"

concerts were a feast of fairytales, poetry and stories, including magnificent readings of Ravel's Mother Goose Suite and a rare work by Charles Ives.

For me, the highlight of the day was Martin Butler's Piano Concertino performed by the Brighton-based composer himself.

It was a stunning work, highly tuneful and hugely energising, and I was surprised by the fairly cool reception it received from the audience.