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There was a general air of joy as the audience broke up after Boston Sinfonia’s summer concert in Boston Stump on Saturday. A few lingered to talk with members of the orchestra and the organisers. Buoyed up by the music they talked of how they wished they could have this every Saturday – that’s ‘enthusiasm speak’ for a little more often! This had been an unashamedly popular programme, presented as part of the celebrations for 700 years of St. Botolph’s church. What could have been more enjoyable for a summer’s evening in these rather depressing times than staying, just  occasionally within the comfort zone?

Before the interval there was the overture to the Marriage of Figaro and  excerpts from La Boheme and Die Fledermaus. For once the tricky acoustic only really bothered me in the Mozart. Puccini gave his opera Boheme the most perfect orchestral introduction – Helen Winter, soprano, even rose to her feet just at the point where, in the theatre, the curtain might rise to reveal a Parisian artist’s studio. Nothing marred that ability of Puccini to draw us straightway into a story that ends so tragically. It was a joy to hear Helen’s beautiful soprano voice again – wonderful that she and the orchestra could project the subtleties of music and text into such different surroundings without stage set or action. After Mascagni’s well-known Intermezzo, played with great sensitivity, came excerpts from more light hearted Die Fledermaus. Some parts of the audience could be seen to sway in time to the music – such fun it was!

Elgar’s Enigma Variations filled the second half. All praise to the writer of the programme notes who had included a proper run down of all those ‘friends pictured within’. In  the depiction, or rather the translation, of these personalities into music, Elgar produced a work that can be wholly satisfying in purely musical terms, but thank goodness he had, in his ken, such a varied bunch of people!

The evening’s performance seemed entirely assured. Inner subtleties and different textures emerged: there was delicacy, grandeur and bombast, I never felt a moment of uncertainty and yet I cannot understand how they now achieve such a high standard with so little rehearsal together – just two rehearsals, Friday evening and Saturday afternoon and then the evening performance. There were no anxieties about balance, intonation and so on. The orchestra seems to have matured through sheer hard work in preparation, real dedication and very good direction from their conductor, Nigel Morley. He has that real ability to convey his own interpretation through his players to us. Together they brought us some glorious music last Saturday.

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