JESSIE'S Fund has been working with children for 20 years. The Academy of St Olave’s and Yorkshire Bach Choir combined in a memorable occasion to celebrate this milestone.

Jessie’s Fund is named for Jessica George, who died aged nine. Lesley Schatzberger, the orchestra’s principal clarinettist, and Alan George, the conductor, are her parents. The charity provides music therapy nationally to children in hospices, and others who are disabled or impaired. Music, for some children their only vehicle of communication, is skilfully channelled to bring them joy in companionship.

Beethoven’s Consecration of the House Overture, with its delightfully over-the-top ending, preceded a charming rendition with children’s choir of David Blake’s Searching the Skies. By turns humorous, poignant, boisterous, funny, this sophisticated but uncomplicated 1994 setting of Jessie’s poems treats them as cherished family heirlooms.

Conducting from memory and taking Beethoven’s metronome markings seriously, Alan George then drove the Choral Symphony at a lick, but the orchestra was lithe and alert, and the resultant energy was never hectoring. With first and second violins divided right and left, important antiphonal effects were highlighted nicely. The scherzo was arresting, and the slow movement engaging and unhurried, even at this tempo. In the finale the four reliable soloists blended pleasingly into the overall texture; Yorkshire Bach Choir, a crack outfit, were on good form, and the Ode to Joy irresistibly saturated the acoustic of the hall.

Beethoven’s outpouring of philanthropic spirit aptly commemorated the similarly inspirational achievements of Jessie’s fund. Here’s to another 20 years!