THIS is the first concert I’ve attended which was so successful that the organisers actually ran out of printed tickets. Fortunately, some rapidly deployed extra seating made it possible to shoehorn everyone in. Opening with Ron Goodwin’s music from Where Eagles Dare, the first half then saw two of John Barry’s James Bond themes plus his theme from Out of Africa handled with enormous panache, followed by Bernard Herrman’s music for Hitchcock’s Psycho, Elmer Bernstein’s rumbustious theme from The Magnificent Seven, Howard Shore’s from The Fellowship of the Ring and Hans Zimmer’s from Pirates of the Caribbean. Conductor Richard Jacklin steered the orchestra expertly through the varied styles presented by the programme, and his introductions to each piece were well-received by the audience.

Grieg’s Piano Concerto has also found its way into films such as The Seventh Veil, so Viv Maclean’s extraordinarily adept and sublimely emotive interpretation of this popular work was an ideal choice for the second half. It’s always a pleasure to hear him perform and it’s also high time an astute record label offered him the chance to add some concerto work to his existing discography.

Tom Corbin