"Fantasy" was the somewhat nebulous theme of the BBC Philharmonic's second concert as part of Manchester's ongoing Reflections on Debussy festival. Yan Pascal Tortelier conducted a programme that had a slightly bitty feel to it, despite the links between its elements. Debussy's Fantaisie for piano and orchestra and his Prélude à L'Après-midi d'un Faune were flanked by Vaughan Williams's Tallis Fantasia and Scriabin's Poem of Ecstasy. Musical fantasies associated with fluidity of form were juxtaposed, in other words, with works about fantasies, primarily erotic.

The sense of dissatisfaction that hovered over the first half derived from the fact that the Vaughan Williams inhabits emotional territory far removed from the rest of the concert, while Debussy's Fantaisie, written in 1890, isn't actually very good. Tortelier's unsentimental, no-nonsense performance of the Tallis Fantasia was a reminder of its startling originality and innate sensuousness. Kathryn Stott was the admirable soloist in the Fantaisie, but neither she nor Tortelier could disguise the flaws of proportion in the final movement, nor the thick post-Romantic scoring that bogs down the opening.

Hearing the Fantaisie in the same concert as L'Après-midi d'un Faune, however, is also to be reminded of the seismic shift in both style and musical consciousness that the latter represents. Done with a whiff of cool as well as deep sensuality, it was exquisitely played.

The real high point, though, was Tortelier's staggering performance of Poem of Ecstasy. Superbly controlled and refined down to the tiniest detail, yet at the same time engulfing and almost visceral in its emotional power, it did much to dent my Scriabin scepticism, which is the highest compliment I can pay it.