CHRISTOPHER SMITH Loyal to its namesake, the London Mozart Players under their conductor David Angus began with a lively account of the overture to Don Giovanni.

CHRISTOPHER SMITH

Loyal to its namesake, the London Mozart Players under their conductor David Angus began with a lively account of the overture to Don Giovanni. After that, interest naturally focussed on the youthful Chloë Hanslip.

She was the soloist in Mendelssohn's perennially popular concerto in E minor, and the St Andrew's Hall audience was by no means thinking only of her age when it burst into an ovation at the end. In the last movement, in particular, she also displayed just the right amount of assertiveness. The well-known overture to Egmont was powerful and stirring. It was good also to hear, for once, the rest of the incidental music that Beethoven wrote for a rival of Goethe's exciting drama of the revolt of the Spanish Netherlands.

Clear-voiced and uncomplicated, Cora Burggraaf gave a delightfully tomboyish interpretation of the two songs performed by Klärchen, Egmont's naïve girlfriend. After giving a running commentary that outlined the play's plot, Julian Glover found the heroic note for the accompanied declamation that sums up its idealistic message. Trumpet calls, the skirl of flutes imitating military fifes and a recall of themes first heard at the beginning brought a conclusion that was proud and confident in the future.