And now for something completely different

Nothing to do with financial services, but sometimes one comes across something so excellent, that one just wants to tell others about it.

Thursday 16th February, saw the Cardiff Chamber Orchestra performing in the Royal Welsh College of Music and Drama under the baton of Daniel Phillips and at the invitation of the Welsh Livery Guild.

Not heard of the Cardiff Chamber Orchestra?  As far as I am aware, there's no recording contract, and this is only their second public performance.  But what a performance!  The photograph isn't clear enough to do it justice, but the only person on the platform over the age of 30 was Jeff Howard, the pianist - these are all young musicians, and Dan Phillips, the conductor, is barely out of University.

The repertoire included a scintillating rendition of Shostakovich's Piano Concerto No. 2 in F, selections from the Magic Flute sung by Lilio Evans (Soprano) and Meilir Jones (Tenor), as well as a very spirited and dynamic performance of Bizet's Carmen Suite No. 1.  At no point during the evening did one ever get the impression that easy options had been selected in order to compensate for inexperience - technically demanding pieces were executed with great panache.

The Cardiff Chamber Orchestra is a spontaneous phenomenon, a group of top-class musicians who appear to have coalesced, as a product of mutual respect, around the pivotal figure of Dan Phillips.

Music this good, this stylish, this confident in itself, deserves to go places.  I hope we'll see a lot more of these guys in the years to come.