Chamber Music Series, Skipton Girls’ High School The hall at Skipton Girls’ High School – and its fine new concert grand – is home to Skipton Building Society Camerata’s 2014 Chamber Music Series.

Chamber music is sometimes perceived as thin, austere and slightly forbidding. However, Skipton Camerata’s accessible programme quickly put that perception to rest.

There were two works: Mozart’s String Quartet in B Flat Major (often nicknamed The Hunt from a fanfare-like opening thought to resemble hunting horns) and the Brahms Piano Quintet in F Minor.

Violinists Rachael Drury and Jem Bradley, Alice Billen (viola) and Doug Badger (cello) offered poised and fluent playing which dealt effortlessly with the technical and emotional demands of the music. Both individually and as an ensemble the four principal string players were at one with the music, the quietly eloquent dialogue between violin and cello one of the high points of a superb evening.

For the second part of the programme, the quartet was joined by the brilliant young Malaysian pianist Matthew Kam in Brahms’s string quintet, a work of symphonic scale and intensity.

The piano part is technically demanding, fully exploiting the tonal and dynamic range of the instrument (well served by the school’s excellent Yamaha).

The string writing makes huge technical and sonic demands on the players, which were transcended in the passion and fluency of performance.

As in the Mozart, technical brilliance was at the service of the music, not mere virtuosity but rapport, focus, coherence of musical vision. The dialogue across the parts, the intensity with which players attended each other as well as to their own line, was at the heart of their outstanding playing.

The Camerata has become one of Skipton’s treasures. The building society must be proud of its sponsorship. But it can also be one of its best-kept secrets. In the first week of the Easter holidays, the small audience was perhaps disappointing but certainly not disappointed. This was music making of the highest order.

Lawrence Denholm Journey to the Cross, Settle and District Churches Together The retelling of the events of Easter by way of four dramatic presentations has become something of a tradition in Settle. The story begins with The Last Supper and the simplicity of the setting at St John’s Church hall helps to create a sense that the audience are genuinely observing a clearly personal farewell.

This year the significant age difference between Ben Willacy, who portrayed Christ, and the others around the table who acted as disciples actually served to heighten the emotional nature of events and you did get a feeling there was a danger that once their charismatic young leader was gone the disciples would become “a bunch of dithering old women”.

However, there was also a palpable sense that this young man had changed their lives.

From the outset, Ben was superb. Aged only 16 and a pupil at Giggleswick School, he spoke with a true sense of authority.

The second scene depicted events in the Garden of Gethsemane, with the town’s Millennium garden providing a strikingly intimate setting. Arrested, Christ was led up Kirkgate to the Market Square for a sham trial.

Outside the town hall, a belligerently bureaucratic Caiaphas condemned Christ and handed him over to Pilate. The exchange between these two key characters was particularly powerful, with the balcony of the Shambles used to great effect.

The final scene took place on the field at Townhead. The poignancy was heightened by a haunting solo of Were You There When They Crucified My Lord?

In many ways this was a very simple performance, yet its power lay in the simplicity and in the conviction with which it was undertaken. It was effective and thought provoking, as well as an extremely well-constructed piece of theatre.

Gill O’Donnell