Performer: Orchestra of St John's

Wednesday night’s concert was the first in the Orchestra of St John’s Proms at the Ashmolean series of the new year. John Lubbock led the orchestra, the OSJ Ashmolean Voices and soloists Johnny Herford and Louise Wayman through lively performances of Handel’s Apollo e Dafne and J.S. Bach’s Liebster Jesu, mein Verlagen.

Oxford Town Hall was certainly decked with boughs of holly for last night’s Christmas special. Featuring the twelve-piece Orchestra of St John’s and a carol-singing choir, the scene was set for a cosy evening away from the cold and drizzle outside. Maybe the best way to describe this concert is by comparing it to a festive CD.

Frank Bridge, his pupil Benjamin Britten, and Ralph Vaughan Williams: three composers defined by their role in steering English music into the twentieth century. With Britten’s centenary approaching in 2013, Kings Place’s two-concert series of English string music was a timely reminder of the musical imagination that flourished in this country at the turn of the twentieth century.