THE first concert of the Painswick Music Society's 2015 season was given on March 28 by the international star Sarah Connolly with pianist Eurene Asti at St Mary's Church.

After five songs by Gustave Mahler, where she showed us her full range of expressive contrast, we were treated to a tour de force Schumann's tuneful Frauenlieben und-leben cycle, the eight-part story of a woman's life from courtship to motherhood and finally widowhood: its range of emotions made us want to cheer her all the way! One of the great things about the Painswick concerts is that they often are in effect master-classes for any aspiring musicians in the audience and this was no exception. Edge-of-seat stuff this and we loved it.

The second half continued in like vein: two energetic songs by the little-known French composer Albert Roussel and then songs by Britten and the Gloucestershire composer Ivor Gurney, beautifully clear and tuneful and then finally a complete change of mood with Sir Richard Rodney Bennett's History of the The Dansant, an uproarious three-part take off of 'jazzy-music-you-can-dance too' which brought the house down. We didn't want to let her and her sparking pianist, Eurene Asti go, so they kindly gave us two encores to a standing ovation.

The next concert is on April 11, with the Carducci Quartet playing Haydn, Beethoven and Shostakovich. Don't miss it....

John Parfitt