I shall begin this review at the end, when conductor Iain Ledingham recalled the cello and oboe soloists to play an encore with the Amersham Festival Chamber Orchestra of a delightful Adagio by one Domenico Zipoli. This was in memory of a benefactor of the orchestra, Major General Henry Lascelles, whose centenary it was.

Indeed his Bequest contributed to this very concert. Apparently the General used to sit in the front row of St Mary’s Church with the open score before him to check all was well.

Of one thing we can be certain. If he was alive and attending this concert of baroque music of the Italian school, which included the rarely performed Zipoli, he would hav been as pleased as punch to see his Bequest being used so well.

The concert was split into two distinct parts.

Firstly there were three concertos - Vivaldi’s Bassoon in E minor (Tasmin Rowlinson); Boccherini’s Cello in G major (Ann-Isabel Meyer); and Besozzi’s Oboe in C Major (Christopher Hooker). Not everyone considers the bassoon entirely suited to solo works, but leaving that aside, all three soloists performed their taxing concertos splendidly.

The cadenzas for the cello and oboe were especially striking. The cello’s, written by the 20th century French composer Maurice Gendron, certainly showed off Meyer’s skills, but, just as importantly, was written and played very much in the refined and charming spirit of the two relevant movements.

The oboe cadenza, written by the soloist , displayed brilliantly and with excitement the scope of the instrument itself and of Hooker himself as soloist. However to my mind it was a few minutes too long proportionally.

In the second part, Vivaldi’s very pleasing and admirably performed Concerto for Oboe and Bassoon, (Rowlinson and Hooker again) was sandwiched between two of Corelli’s masterful and contrasting Concerto Grosso from his Opus 6.

No 10 in C major is of a secular, sometimes jolly nature; whereas No 8, the Christmas Concerto, was designed for Church performance on Christmas Eve. The excellent programme notes tell us that the lovely, somewhat elusive Pastorale was played “during the blessing of the crib”.

In both works the solo leads were taken by Charlotte Edwards and Marjorie King (violins) and by Anne-Isabel Meyer (Cello), while throughout the concert Iain Ledingham provided the required and inspired keyboard accompaniment.

The large and loyal Amersham audience showed their strong approval throughout the concert.