On Tuesday evening ambitious young instrumentalists from around the county displayed their talents: from the icy waters of the Arctic in Horner’s Titanic to the warmth of the Pacific, a fantastic array of pieces was confidently performed.

The West Wiltshire Concert Band, conducted by Mike Daniels, commenced with Concert Prelude by Philip Sparke and certainly gave the audience a taste of what was to come.

Ireland’s free flowing Elegy of legato melodies, juxtaposed with the Chattaway’s Mazama Legend of the Pacific Northwest, enthralled the audience.

Here the band freely explored the potential of percussion, with the use of disciplined silent rests, rhythmically and dynamically managed to emulate the tension of a primitive atmosphere.

Ending the first section of the evening was a selection of Sondheim’s Sweeney Todd pieces, demonstrating the ability of the brass and woodwind sections to convey themes of dark tragedy with hints of comedy.

Though at times the heavy brass drowned the higher woodwind section, it was an impressive spectacle.

The West Wiltshire Youth Orchestra boisterously took over after the interval to capture the audience with Copland’s Hoe-Down conducted by Daniel Smith.

In Stravinsky’s The Firebird Suite, they quintessentially demonstrated the arête of the instrumentalists to exploit the ensemble’s eclectic potential for timbre clearly, even at dynamically vulnerable points of the piece.

To finish, the ensembles united to play Mussorgsky’s The Great Gate of Kiev, a magnificent piece which summed up a magnificent evening.