Oxford certainly put itself on the map at one of the first classical concerts to be staged at the Waterside theatre. Not only was the Oxford Philomusica making its first appearance as the theatre’s resident ‘Orchestra in Association’, the soloist in Mendelssohn’s Violin Concerto is reading Music at Oxford University. Jennifer Pike was the youngest winner of the BBC Young Musician of the Year, when she played the Mendelssohn concerto. Her Aylesbury performance of the work was masterly: in particular the slow movement was beautifully rounded, while the finale sounded fluid and celebratory.

The Philomusica, playing under music director Marios Papadopoulos, began with a stately, yet crisp and disciplined, account of Rossini’s Barber of Seville overture. This revealed that the Waterside has quite a clinical acoustic for classical music, it’s certainly not a venue where sloppy playing or flunked entries can be hidden under a general mush of sound. At this concert, quiet passages were marred by an obtrusive hum, I guess coming from the theatre’s air- conditioning system. Unfortunately, it took quite some time to fix this problem.

After the interval, the Philomusica delivered another much-loved favourite, Elgar’s Enigma Variations. In a performance that was characterful but didn’t drown in sentimentality, the cellos in particular demonstrated that if you play very, very gently at the Waterside, you can be heard to special advantage.