This concert marked the first appearance of Nicholas Cleobury as associate director of Orchestra of the Swan. Given Cleobury's affinity with English music and the ensemble's in-depth exploration of Tippett in this centenary year, it seemed to augur well. As importantly, it constituted a small rite of passage for the players.

Until now, only artistic director David Curtis has worked with the Stratford-based OotS, shaping it into a gutsy and versatile group; bringing in other influences suggests a new stage in their maturing process.

One of the distinct pluses of OotS performances is the integrity of their programming. Here, Tippett's suite Little Music, with its slightly self-conscious but deeply-felt tributes to viol music and to Purcell, and Elgar's Introduction and Allegro - a work Tippett loved and conducted often - defined parameters within which the main work of the evening could then resonate more clearly. In the Concerto for Double String Orchestra, Cleobury elicited a vibrant sound and a real spring to the rhythm. The central adagio - with the solo violin's poignant pentatonic theme deliberately emulating Beethoven's Op 95 quartet, sensitively played by leader David le Page - stood out for articulating the contemplative yet vulnerable heart of this music.

New work forms a parallel thread in this current series and Dobrinka Tabakova's Bell Tower in the Clouds was the latest commission to be heard. Both Tabakova's description of the work's genesis - hearing the bells of a village church while walking in the Dolomites - and Cleobury's introduction hinted at a spiritual journey. Yet, while the work created a heightened expectation, the tension between solo string quartet and the main body of strings didn't in the end seem to suggest any particular epiphany. Perhaps this was an ivory bell tower.