Looking at the membership of the Thames Vale Youth Orchestra helpfully listed in the programme, I'd rather assumed that was the full tally to be drawn on for specific events. But no. There they all were, 85 of them not just six percussion and three saxophones, but 23 violins, a harp . . . and the rest to match. All studying full-time in Oxfordshire and Berkshire schools (many imminently facing exams this summer), never missing the Monday rehearsal, and now waiting, with a level of concentration few conductors can ever count on, for Michael Stinton to launch the spring concert at the Sheldonian.

They played three pieces, large-scale but accessible, from the early 20th century, all enabling everyone to have a moment of glory, while keeping that unity of creative participation which is the essence of music-making and remains a lifetime enrichment. Delius's In a Summer Garden ((1908) illustrated this perfectly even the harpist had a go with some good string intonation (that got a bit edgy as the evening went on) and very creditable horn playing which was a consistently strong feature. Some of the woodwind counterpoint in the birdsong' motif was slightly harsh in tone, but the concluding diminuendo was excellently achieved.

Gershwin's An American in Paris (1928) is well-known for its larkiness, and, after a very well-coordinated opening we had lots of special effects of car-horns, police whistles, woodblocks and the like some gear, I was told, newly acquired and making its debut without losing the underlying jaunty, inquisitive, New World glad-to-be-alive rhythm. After the final reprise of the main theme, it was time for the credits to roll, and so they did as Stinton brought to their feet the saxes, horns and bassoons.

Lastly, Vaughan Williams's London Symphony, his second, performed in 1914 only four years after his first, the Sea Symphony, which I was reminded of in the orchestration of the slow second and marching fourth movements. There was much more VW' style too in the sense of surge and sweeping ensemble as well as the local colour of chimes and flowergirls. Ensemble is all, and one shouldn't name names. But the first viola gave his solo brilliantly, and the orchestra owed a lot to its leader and oldest inhabitant' Sam Wylie now, like many others, leaving school and the orchestra but surely not music.