Susan Bullock concert at St Barts on 13 June

[Robin Orton]

I thought Im Treibhaus, the third song in the Wesendonck Lieder was the highlight in this great concert; Susan Bullock's voice had really opened up by then and she got right to the heart of this wonderful, passionate song, the music of which Wagner used again in the third act of Tristan. In the second half, a fine performance of Cantaloube's Songs of the Auvergne, wildly received and prompting two enjoyable encores: Puccini's O mio babbino caro and an unaccompanied Dafydd y Garreg Wen, the latter dedicated to the memory of Susan Bullock's friend Eileen Shaw who lived in Sydenham and whose funeral, we were told, was held in St Barts earlier this year.

Also two orchestral pieces by the Festival Orchestra. I enjoyed the Ravel Le Tombeau de Couperin - a much-deserved special round of applause for the principal oboist. The concert opened with Mozart's 29th Symphony. I found some of the tempi here a bit disconcerting - the second and the third movements seemed very fast, but the last movement was, to my ears, too slow and came over as rather ponderous.