Tuesday’s concert at the Sheldonian saw the coming together of two great Oxford institutions: the Oxford Philomusica and the Oxford Chamber Music Festival. This is the first time they’ve joined forces, but hopefully not the last, because it’s a marriage made in heaven.

The opening piece, Telemann’s gently comic Don Quixote, established this year’s theme of fairytale and fantasy, and the Oxford Philomusica’s string players distinguished themselves with a lively delivery that delighted and enthralled. Marios Papadopoulos conducted with usual precision, drawing out the humorous nature of the piece and ensuring it ended with an appropriate flourish. After this magnificent start it seemed anything that followed would be an anti-climax, but festival founder Priya Mitchell and young Norwegian violinist Vilde Frang, making her festival debut, soon dispelled the idea with a virtuosic performance of Vivaldi’s Concerto for Two Violins in A minor. The two Allegro sections were passionate and energetic, while both players produced some exquisite sounds in the Larghetto e spiritoso section.

Kurt Atterberg’s Suite No.3 for strings focused closely on fantasy with its pantomime movement and oriental feel, played with vigour by Vladmir Mendelssohn on viola and Priya Mitchell on violin.

A high spot was Suite in the Old Style by composer-in-residence, Bulgarian Dobrinka Tabakova. Intended as a homage to Rameau, the piece reflected scenes from an 18th century aristocratic household. As with other pieces by Tabakova, this was written for Ukranian viola virtuoso Maxim Rysanov, whose empathy for music was evident in this thrilling and masterful performance.

The concert was rounded off gloriously with Mendelssohn’s stirring Double Concerto for violin, piano and orchestra in D, delivered here with great intensity and purpose, with a stunning performance on the piano from Natacha Kudritskaya and spirited support from the orchestra.