ANCIENT and Modern was the title of a concert presented in Kendal Parish Church by the enterprising Lonsdale Chamber Orchestra when the players performed works from the 18th century alongside three works for recorder and strings - all receiving their first performance - by composers of our own time.

Alongside concertos by Bach, Handel, Vivaldi, Telemann and Torelli, we heard music by the octogenarian composers Francis Jackson (a former organist of York Minster) and John Gardner, and the nonagenarian, Wilfrid Mellers, Emeritus Professor of Music at York University.

The orchestra of 15 players is made up of local professional players resident in Cumbria and visiting players. It was led on this occasion by Duncan Druce, a well-respected violinist who has vast professional experience in both early and modern music. Other visitors included the young solo trumpeter, Mark Allen (co-principal of the BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra), solo cellist Jonathan Price and solo recorder players Amanda Babington and John Turner.

To ask a group of players, using modern instruments, to switch from a baroque style of playing to something more appropriate for music of a much later period was very demanding and part of the success of this concert was due to the way in which the players proved themselves able to adapt.

They played the baroque items with rhythmic vitality and a good sense of style while providing sympathetic accompaniments to John Turner's virtuosity in his role as recorder soloist in the modern works.

Perhaps the least successful performance of the evening was Wilfrid Mellers's A Fount of Fair Dance. The density of the string writing overbalanced the gentle sounds of the recorder in its lower register. The other two modern pieces were more successful in achieving balance between strings and recorder. Francis Jackson's short and evocative Moonrise left an enduring impression of peace and calm, while John Gardner's Petite Suite proved to be a well-written and delightfully light-hearted set of pieces in - to quote their composer a hotch-potch of styles'.

Throughout the evening, the playing was of high quality: all soloists gave impressive performances in both baroque and modern works. For much of the time, the orchestra functioned without a conductor; only in the modern works was a conductor really necessary and this role was ably filled by Roger Cann. This concert was one of the most enterprising to have been presented in Kendal for some time and merited a larger audience. Cumbria is fortunate in having such a versatile and dedicated group of string players.

Clive Walkley