Farnham Sinfonia gave its latest concert at St Andrew’s Church in Farnham on Saturday, October 15.

This professional orchestra presents music for the community with concerts and outreach programmes.

Normally for such a concert the audience assembles, waits and calms down before the entry of the conductor.

Not so for this one: the conductor, Matthew Taylor, entered like a whirlwind and whipped the orchestra into the opening piece, the Arrival of the Queen of Sheba – from Handel’s oratorio Solomon – with no introduction.

This might have been the effect on the first audience in 1749, when this orchestral showpiece announced the start of Part 3 of the oratorio.

It was presented with great verve and panache and bounce between the two oboists, Marjorie Carrington and Sylvia Ellison, providing a foil against the body of strings led by Elizabeth Cooney.

After that we were ready for a note of welcome from Matthew, who introduced his new composition — the world premiere, no less, of a Farnham Castle Charity and Trust commission for Queen Elizabeth II’s Platinum Jubilee.

Castle Vistas is a descriptive piece brought to mind by the wonderful landscape views from Farnham Park.

Matthew’s brief talk gave the two oboists a chance to escape from the east end of the church to the pavilions at the west end, where they were to add an extra dimension to the music.

The final piece in the first half featured a solo oboe: the excellent James Turnbull played the solo part in Vaughan Williams’ Concerto in A minor for Oboe and Strings.

The concerto is a beautiful work with a pastoral feel, which made this listener keen to hear it again.

After the interval we were given a performance of the spring-like Symphony 5 of Schubert. Arguably this symphony is the very best written by a teenager, and it was played with appropriately youthful vigour.

There was a considerable buzz among the audience during the interval and after the concert, a sure sign that the Farnham Sinfonia has now arrived and is an established part of Farnham life.

John Mansfield