Review: Peter Donohoe, Martin Roscoe, ConTempo Quartet ****

The French Impressions series has been "curated" – it says in the publicity – by clarinettist Emma Johnson. Nationwide, arts marketers are rebranding museum curators as directors, and festival directors as curators. Why?

Emma Johnson, who chose the music and performers for the series – in other words directed it – also appeared in its final concert, an elegant summing up of its main theme of French music's struggle to throw off German influence.

Debussy's String Quartet reflects the struggle, Germanically cyclic and sonata-ish but pre-figuring Bartok and Stravinsky. Masterfully played by the Romanian ConTempo Quartet, it balanced the witty and frightening images of Debussy's En Blanc et Noir.

Ravel's La Valse is the final expunging of German influence from French music, and Bizet found his true non-German style in Jeux d'Enfants.

The Peter Donohoe and Martin Roscoe piano duo delivered the sensuous melody and harmonic complexity of the Bizet, the imagery of En Blanc et Noir and the frenzied ironies of the Ravel with precision and brilliance.

The grand finale was Carnival of the Animals by Saint-Saens, whose academically correct melodies and harmonies dominated the tradition the other composers strove to escape. Deliciously played in its original chamber version by Donohoe, Roscoe, the ConTempos plus Emma Johnson, Laura Jellicoe (flute), Chris West (double bass) and John Abendstern (percussion), its inclusion was a joyous, colourful and delicious irony.