Steve Bingham and the Ad Hoc Strings gave a most imaginative concert in St Mary's Church on Saturday, says reviewer Rosemary Westwell.

This event was one of many for the Ely Arts Festival and was introduced by the director of the festival, Chris Parsons.

The concert opened with an exquisite performance of Bach's Christ Lag in Todesbanden.

The sound was rich and the harmonies exactly how you would expect them to be - Bach to the full.

Jeremy Harmer and Steve Bingham Jeremy Harmer and Steve Bingham (Image: Rosemary Westwell)

Then the programme widened the remit to include Vivaldi's Four Seasons recomposed by Max Richter and included intriguing works by Nyman, and Knut Nystedt with captivating titles such as Fish Beach, and Time Lapse.

In the recomposed Four Seasons, Vivaldi was very much in place but extended into modern idioms.

There were moments when Vivaldi's spirited tunes branched out into even more virtuosic splendour in the hands of soloist Steve Bingham.

Many of these pieces did not end with the expected nicely-formed rounding off chords - instead they simply stopped dead leaving us gasping. That certainly was a new way to end a piece.

Harpsichordist from the concert Harpsichordist from the concert (Image: Rosemary Westwell)

During the evening one composer really appealed to me, and that was Michael Nyman.

His pieces developed intensely, packed full of meaningful phrases that occurred throughout the different string sections.

As the works progressed they became more and more involved while making a constant cohesive and attractive sound.

This was particularly evident in The Garden is Becoming Robe.

Before each piece in the evening's programme, Jeremy Harmer read out one of many Haiku poems by the renowned Japanese poet Matsuo Basho.

There were also artists at the festival There were also artists at the festival (Image: Rosemary Westwell)

These were very brief poems - only three lines - and were fitting introductions: succinct and pertinent.

In the meantime, artist, Laura Pearson-Clarke painted a picture to reflect the concert and in it was a tree that seemed to grow out of the sounds, very like many of the pieces that also grew and grew.

The tumultuous applause at the end of the concert and the encore were justly deserved after such an imaginative and successful evening.