The annual concert of the Academy of St Thomas in the magnificent church at Salle is always a notable event in the musical calendar.

Saturday’s programme (June 22) featured the strings, with the distinguished viola player Philip Dukes as soloist and conductor, and a rare event, two viola concertos in the first half.

Dukes produced a warm sound with his perfectly controlled playing in Telemann’s splendid viola concerto, a work which displays to great effect the instrument’s potential. Despite Dukes’ fine playing in the second work, which was an arrangement of a concerto by Bach originally written for the oboe, the piece did not have the same effect.

Following the interval, Dukes playing of the strings was excellent during both the Dag Wiren Serenade and Dvorak’s Nocturne.

Lighter fare to finish with a Leroy Anderson selection, performed with great panache, with the orchestra’s treasurer Jonathan Wortley, a splendid ‘soloist’ using a typewriter as an instrument – what tremendous fun!

Frank Cliff