YOU COULD hardly wipe the smiles off the faces of the members of the National Capital Orchestra as, under the baton of  conductor Max McBride, they embarked upon Offenbach’s  “Overture to La Belle Helene” in the Gunning Shire Hall.

It was also, as McBride noted at the beginning, a very “big” sound, that fairly shook  the rafters of the hall, and the lively playing continued through Chabrier’s “Suite  Pastorale,” well chosen for the opportunities it gave members of this orchestra, drawn from the community and as they boast, comprising around 50 players, including a midwife, a paediatrician, a forensic handwriting expert, a political reporter and plenty of public servants.

The centrepiece of the afternoon was the world premiere of “4 Saxby Lane: Romance for Cello and Orchestra,” composed and performed by David Pereira, together with the full orchestra. The title refers to a period in the early 2000s when Pereira lived in Gunning and it, too, gave the  individual orchestral musicians scope to explore their talents.

While in the first two movements the orchestra tended to overpower the cello, in the third and final movement, the more reflective qualities in Pereira’s composition came to the fore, featuring some nice interplay with flutes and the violin section.

After interval, Pereira showed his  commitment to the orchestra by joining the cello line up for the final two works.

It was hard to pick between these for drama – both works almost seemed to require a corps  ballet  as the orchestra played the ballet music from Gustav  Holst’s little-known opera, “The Perfect Fool” and the  showy Massenet’s  “music from the ballet “Le Cid,”   which took us on a tour of the Iberian Peninsula.

By the end of this entertaining and varied afternoon of orchestral music, you still couldn’t wipe the smiles from the faces of the players.