Reg Burnard

THERE were nearly 200 works of art - paintings, drawings, photos, textiles, ceramics and sculptures - entered for the annual open art exhibition at the Pound Arts Centre, Corsham, writes REG BURNARD.

The Welsh Sinfonia at the Wiltshire Music Centre, Saturday February 20th 2015.

Welsh Sinfonia The Crescendo Tour Wiltshire Music Centre Saturday, February 20 This charming concert by the main professional chamber orchestra from Wales deserved a much larger audience.

Whatever your taste, be it Haydn, Britten or Shostakovich, this pre-Valentine’s Day concert went straight to the heart.

Most pianists, and particularly those enlightened souls with a love of Bach, will have their favourite recording of the heavenly Goldberg variations. Mostly, I fancy, on now scratchy vinyl.

Neither Tasmin Little (violin) or Martin Roscoe (piano) accompany; both are soloists: And it works.

So many elements combined to make this one of the most divine enterprises of English Touring Opera’s outstanding season.

Neither accompany; both are soloists. And it works.

The now regular visit by the Doric - loosely, one could say, artists in residence - brought on Saturday another evening to savour: Sympathetic and tasteful playing and a programme to challenge the mind.

The Wiltshire Music Centre opened its new season on Saturday with a glittering reception for 300 guests, a raft of high hopes and credits, a cunningly conceived 405-light sculpture in a refurbished foyer and, the real meat of it all, a concert of Baroque music that must surely surpass anything previously staged there.