FOUR STARS

Traditional gypsy music has inspired countless composers over the years, and this year’s Oxford Chamber Music Festival cleverly distilled some of the best into a six-day jamboree that showed chamber music at its most exciting.

Friday’s evening concert, Bohemians, was a fun, lively affair, which for me was effortlessly dominated by Norwegian musician and composer Per Arne Glorvigen. Playing his own music on the bandoneón — a kind of accordion from Latin America — he displayed immense musicianship and a ready wit. His Argentinian tangoes, for which he was joined by festival founder/violinist Priya Mitchell and double bassist Laurène Durantel, were wonderfully vibrant and so full of gloriously rich melodies and harmonies that you just wanted to leap to your feet, grab a partner and go tango-ing round the Holywell.

Alasdair Beatson and Natacha Kudritskaya (piano) and Graf Mourja (violin) delivered Brahms’ Hungarian Dances with playful zest. Much of this music was inspired by a Hungarian gypsy band at Vienna’s Café Czarda, and you could almost smell the goulash and see the colourful gypsy skirts twirling as the musicians cooked up a veritable musical feast.

Dvorak’s piano trio Dumky provided a strong contrast, with some impassioned music inspired by his Slav roots.