The annual Norfolk and Norwich Festival is well underway with several concerts stunning audiences. After a dramatic opening launch with Mo and the Red Ribbon on Friday night, my first concert was the Aurora Orchestra in Norwich Cathedral playing Eroica by Heart. Literally by heart as they play without scores, and freed from their music stands and paper they are able to put heart and soul into their performance. And not only heart and soul but their whole bodies as they are really able to move with their instruments, and direct energy into their playing unconstrained.

Under the delicate direction of their conductor Nicholas Collon, himself as lithe and graceful as his baton, poised and agile yet full of personality. Serious at first but as he encouraged his players to move around the cathedral and mix into the audience, and for the audience to infiltrate the boundaries of the stage to sit amongst the musicians, on the floor, on staging and really up close and intimate, he came to life, clearly enjoying the spin. The glee spread across his face as he needed to cast around the space to find the right players at any given time – an extra challenge. The cathedral is a grand and beautiful space at any time but in this case, we were invited in to truly be a part of the performance, formality and barriers abandoned. the acoustic of the building made best use of the brassy timbres of the horn section. Two great crashes at the start provided the drama followed by the more delicate strings and flutes. Then crashing timpani again creating a cacophony almost like the noisy chaos of a traffic jam until the thin, reedy oboes cut in again. It is impressive that they play with such freedom, and control. Memorising the music to play in the company of so many others is truly amazing and admirable.

Saturday night was followed on Sunday by Antiphony of the Trees, a solo performance by Laura Cannell. Growing up in Norfolk, as a child she was inspired by a troupe of Medieval minstrel players at Blicking Hall and realised that the recorder could be a serious instrument and not just for primary school children. She has mastered the recorder, in a range of sizes, and made it her own with a very distinctive style of traditional and contemporary mixed in with looping techniques and echo and other (subtle) effects that enable her to layer the composition.

Antiphony of the Trees is an album composed and recorded during lockdown. At least, Laura tells the story of trying to work on a composition with the door open in the summer and her own musical thoughts being drowned out by the song of the many birds in her Suffolk country garden. Through a ‘join them rather than beat them’ approach Antiphony for the Trees was born, with the music of birdsong transposed into music for the range of recorders that Laura plays.

In the shadow of the great cathedral organ, newly restored and with some colourful lighting, Laura’s lone figure and impressive playing filled the space and very much pleased the audience, set out on all sides.

Laura is one of two Musician in Residence at the Norfolk & Norwich Festival and has two other performances, the next on Sunday 19th in The Speigeltent in Chapelfield Gardens