Brahms's beard

I noticed this programme billed in the Radio Times. One of the luxuries of being at home and lethargic is that after you have struggled the ten yards to the newsagent and back, to pick up (ssssh) 60 cigarettes, a King Size Mars Bar and a Radio Times, there is nothing else to do but recline on the sofa eating said Mars Bar, chain smoking said cigarettes andreading the Radio Times in minute detail. Still, I think a whole programme devoted to whether we would change our perception of Brahms if he hadn't had a beard is going a bit far. Like, in those days, all men had beards, didn't they? More interesting is the Simon Rattle phenomenon, otherwise known as Classical Music Hair