Conductor William Carslake made sure we were allowed to appreciate the full brilliance and inventiveness of Beethoven's scores, with two masterful displays of precision, intensity and total commitment.

Richard Strauss's oboe concerto is a notoriously difficult addition to the oboe repertoire, largely due to the fact that there are no breaks between the three movements and so the unfortunate soloist has little chance to rest.

The mental and physical stamina required is so immense that the American oboist John Mack once likened playing the piece to "swimming between two islands in shark-infested waters". So how did Saturday njght's soloist, John Anderson, make it all seem so effortless?

The opening passage, a mighty 56 bars long, is enough to test the most resilient of players, but Anderson coped magnificently with the composer's extraordinary demands, producing an exquisite tone that he sustained throughout the andante movement and the spirited finale.

During the interval, I heard several appreciative comments from audience members clearly delighted at Anderson's eloquence and mastery.

Anything that followed could have seemed an anticlimax, but the orchestra's robust and radiant account of Haydn's Symphony No.99 was equally delightful. Once again, Carslake ensured a lively and thrilling rendition, with the wind section coming well and truly into its own in the second movement, which is believed to have been written in tribute to Haydn's friend, Marianne von Genzinger.

Nicole Lisle Oxford Times 29 09 06