THE horns have it! A one-horned soloist and an eight-horned orchestra lucidly conducted by Susanna Riddell.

There are few more exciting overtures than that to Wagner’s opera Die Meistersingers. As a comic drama the music has magnificence and grandeur beyond the humour and the Wessex Youth Orchestra gave a sumptuous performance.

Richard Strauss’s father played first horn in the local orchestra and it was for him that the 17 year-old boy wrote the Horn Concerto No1. In 2005 at the age of 21 Angela Barnes became the first ever female member of the LSO’s brass section; a real achievement in itself and doubtless an inspiration to the hornists at this event. Its unbroken three-movement span was superbly accomplished in Barnes’ fluently mellow tones, with the finale given considerable brilliance within its cheerful hunting-style scoring.

Mahler’s Symphony No1 calls for a huge orchestra including eight horns who, in the latter stages of the finale, are required to stand and play, which they did; magnificently. Magnificence was the watchword of the whole ensemble, sure, there were a few (very few) duff notes, but this is a fifty-minute challenge demanding tremendous concentration, particularly on the many subtleties such as the highly atmospheric opening; dawn on a spring morning. Each movement was fully characterised, the rousing finale drawing a deserved standing ovation.