Violinist Ida Haendel, now in her late 70s, is something of a legend in her own lifetime - but her performance of the Sibelius Concerto with the BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra and Osmo Vanska revealed a drastic decline in her powers.

A few vestiges of what once made her special remain; the mellowness of tone and the expansiveness of her phrasing were in evidence in both the drooping contours of the opening theme and the lyrical slow movement. Elsewhere, however, there were flaws. Attention to momentary detail has replaced her ability to present the music as a cumulative progression of paragraphs. Many passages seemed underpowered and she was cavalier with speeds, pulling the score about. A serious lapse of memory in the first movement required an awkward period of adjustment.

Vanska genius was everywhere apparent, however, in his ability to mould the work round her vagaries. That he has also turned the BBCSSO into one of the most formidable ensembles in the UK could also be gauged from the rest of the programme, which consisted of Janacek's The Fiddler's Child and Nielsen's Third Symphony.

Janacek's tone poem is a portrait of an abused child haunted by memories of his musician father. It is structurally flawed in the middle, which Vanska couldn't disguise, but he drew us into its mixture of horror and compassion with tremendous force. Nielsen's Third squashes Mahlerian psychological density into Brahmsian conciseness, interspersing intensity with brief moments of fierce beauty. Vanska seems to penetrate every fibre, nerve and sinew of the score, while the playing - precise yet emotionally raw - was second to none.