One of the benefits of a festival is that events often take place across so many sites, encouraging people to discover new or unfamiliar venues. And St Michael’s Church, just on the edge of Lichfield city centre, is a wonderful setting to hear chamber music - particularly when the music is this fine.

On Saturday 12 July the church played host to two concerts - one featuring the Paddington Trio and the other showcasing two students of The Purcell School.

The Paddington Trio brings together the skills of Finnish violinist Tuulia Hero, Irish cellist Patrick Moriarty and American pianist Stephanie Tang and is named after everyone’s favourite bear because the trio first played together at Paddington Railway Station.

The programme was a delight with a mix of well-known composers and less familiar works, balancing some meaty Ravel with some more whimsical Scandinavian pieces. And, just as Paddington famously ‘has a habit of bringing people closer together’ so too the trio present an informal performance in which they take it in turns to introduce the pieces, ensuring the audience know in advance what to listen out for.

The group began with Edvard Grieg’s Andante con moto in C minor, a work left unfinished by the composer at his death. In the hands of the hugely talented trio though, it felt anything but incomplete as they brought a gentle lyricism to the piece.

French composer Vincent D’Indy’s Piano Trio No 2 in G major saw the musicians having a little fun with this lesser-known work while Andrea Tarrodi’s Piano Trio No 1 Akacia took us to the wilds of Sweden with the instruments presenting both birdsong and the drama of the Scandinavian weather.

The finale saw the trio tackling Maurice Ravel’s Piano Trio in A minor. A work which demands a great deal from performers, the trio easily rose to the challenge bringing out the colour as well as the dexterity of the piece.

The audience were treated to a quirky encore in the shape of The Armless Fiddler from Sam Perkin’s Freakshow for Piano Trio which saw all three instruments being used unconventionally to say the least but it was a lot of fun.

Earlier in the day students of The Purcell School of Music took to the stage and left the audience in little doubt we were watching stars of the future.

Stephanie Qiao and Yazdi Madon performed a programme including Johann Sebastian Bach, Maurice Ravel, Frederic Chopin and Alexander Scriabin which was breath-taking in its ambition and execution. Both played with huge confidence and ability and their encore, a duet of Johannes Brahms’ Hungarian Dance No 1 in G minor, was joyous.

Both concerts were bite-size pieces, being just 100 minutes for the Paddington Trio and an hour in length for The Purcell School, but they were wonderful showcases of young talent and a reminder that you don’t always need to go to the internationally-renowned concert halls to hear quality performance.

Five stars

Reviewed by Diane Parkes on Saturday 12 July. Lichfield Festival continues until Sunday 20 July. Information and tickets for all upcoming events can be found at lichfieldfestival.org