The musical component of the autumn schedules at the Colosseum started with a bang when the Royal Grammar School, High Wycombe, made the journey to Watford for a Gala Concert celebrating the School's 450th Anniversary. For this ambitious occasion, a contingent from Wycombe High School (girls) joined the boys of the RGS, and the young people were joined by relatives, former pupils and others associated with the schools.

Ambitious is the word, for the final item in the programme was Walton's demanding oratorio Belshazzar's Feast , and before it came the Concerto for Violin and Orchestra in D minor by Sibelius.  In the latter, the violin soloist was Thomas Aldren, a former pupil at the RGS who is now studying music at King's College, London. In some ways, this concerto was the bigger challenge, since in Walton's oratorio a large choir and orchestra performing in the excellent acoustics of this concert hall can rely on sheer vigour to cover up any problems. Aldren displayed a good tone and played with feeling, which sometimes the orchestra could not quite measure up to.  Occasionally there was the untidiness to which such a young player is liable, and he was tiring when he reached the long rapid passage work in the third movement. Deservedly, the performance was greeted rapturously by the sympathetic audience.

Timothy Vanvell, the Director of Music at RGS, who conducted throughout, is to be congratulated on his control of his large and varied resources: a choir of around 220 voices and an orchestra of some 75 players. They must all work well together in Belshazzar's Feast . How cleverly Walton used his brilliant orchestration, dynamic contrasts and sometimes complicated rhythms! It was only occasionally that the choir and orchestra lapsed into untidiness. Their main problem was that, after all, this is an oratorio in which the words matter and often they were hardly distinguishable. Sometimes this was because the orchestra drowned the choir.

The bass baritone soloist in this work, Richard Halton, had no such difficulty. He has a strong tone, sang clearly and made the most of his dramatic entries, for which his operatic experience no doubt stood him in good stead, making an important contribution to this memorable occasion.

Graham Mordue