For a second time, Watford Musical Heritage and Classic Concerts Trust went to the Great Hall of Merchant Taylors' School for one of their current season of concerts. This time, the string section of the English Classical Players (some two dozen musicians) were the performers; as usual, Jonathan Brett was the conductor. The acoustics are big enough for the sound to spread, but the hall is sufficiently intimate for the audience to hear every detail. The programme took advantage of this.

The Swedish composer Dag Wiren (1905-86) was familiar with the great musicians of his lifetime and composed in a neo-classical manner. His Serenade for String Orchestra is in quite a simple style, for which good ensemble and accurate playing are essential.

The English Classical Players were evidently at home with this, though there were occasional roughnesses. Of the four movements, the concluding March is the best known, and brought the work to a lively end.

These programmes do not often include vocal works, so it was a pleasure to hear Margareta Haverinen (mezzo soprano) sing Il tramonto, by Respighi. It is a lyric poem by Shelley translated into Italian. She sang to the audience, not just in front of them. Her voice has a good range of tone and volume, and combined well with the orchestra. In these acoustics, hearing the words presented no difficulty. The string orchestra, accompanying her, provided well judged contrasts of tone and volume.

The high point of the evening was a newly commissioned work by Maria Antal, Unborn Beauty. The subject is a personal one; the musical material is expressive but quite simple, and modern composing techniques are applied to it - a test of the conductor's understanding and the orchestra's competence which (apart from one or two awkward moments) they were well able to measure up to. The composer was present to acknowledge the well merited applause.

Tchaikovsky's Serenade for String Orchestra is familiar to everyone - including, of course, the players, who did not entirely escape the temptation to relax. Although it exemplifies the composer's lyricism, there are hints of his characteristic frantic emotions and they might have been stronger; the contrasts in tempo might have been more marked. But, for example, in the waltz, the pauses were well judged, and in the finale lively rhythms were maintained. The first violin section leads for most of the time, of course, but perhaps the arrangement of the orchestra tended to suppress the second violins.

Graham Mordue