PIANIST Iain Farrington opened the society's 44th season with a dazzling performance with his programme A Night of Light.

This was very different from the normal recital and probably would not appeal to the purist, but the audience, which included more young people than usual, thoroughly enjoyed themselves.

As well as excelling as a pianist, Iain is a prolific composer and arranger and he opened with his superb arrangement of Jack's the Lad, better known as the Sailor's Hornpipe.

Then came music by Elgar, Walton, Coates, Grainger and Bax together with an arrangement by Rachmaninov of Kreisler's Liebeslied before a tremendous performance of Rhapsody in Blue.

Three pieces by Billy Mayerl opened the second half before Art Tatum's version of Dvorak's Humoresque and Dave Brubeck's Blue Rondo a la Turk.

The programme ended with Iain's own arrangements of three Gershwin songs plus Strawberry Fields Forever and Money, Money, Money. After prolonged and enthusiastic applause he played his arrangement of Tiger Rag as an encore. Everyone would happily have listened to more but he had a train to catch.

Iain established a wonderful rapport with the audience, even joining them for the interval rather than taking a well-earned rest. There is an opportunity to hear him next year in a more conventional concert when he will play his arrangement of Elgar's 3rd Symphony at the composer's birthplace.

The next concert will be given by the co-principal cellist of the CBSO, Ulrich Heinen, on November 12. His pianist is Robert Markham and the programme includes Schubert's Arpeggione Sonata. Ulrich is a very experienced recitalist and has appeared regularly on BBC Radio 3. It promises to be another wonderful evening's music making.