THE Paragon ensemble fielded a front rank group of strings and

percussion (mostly Royal SNO and BBC SSO players) yesterday in a

powerful concert, the third in the two-day Academy Now! festival. And a

good, big house turned out to hear them.

Conducted by David Davies, and with Paragon in scorching form, the

predominant accent in this concert was on drama. The proceedings erupted

with Lyell Cresswell's Pumpkin Massacre, sheer instrumental drama

launched on a sea of seething, trilling strings.

Full of splintering accents, jagged thrusts, frantic activity, and

with the momentum of a juggernaut, Cresswell's piece, based on an

incident in Maori history, was reminiscent, in its explosive effect, of

Penderecki's Hiroshima Threnody. Superb stuff.

At the other end of the programme was an altogether different kind of

drama with Thomas Wilson's Missa pro Mundo Conturbato. Steeped in

austerity, even in its more extrovert moments, this solemn, concerned

setting of the Mass is as urgently relevant a comment today as it was a

quarter of a century ago.

Its message was delivered with a raw power by the student voices of

Academy Now!, understandably stronger in ensemble than individually.

A student premiere, Is it Me, or the Basilica, by Cluny Strachan,

formed the centrepiece. Some highly attractive ideas were laced through

the work -- a slow Scottish air, treated in rather a MacMillan-like

manner, and an impassioned, long-limbed melody -- but the piece sprawled

rather, lacking overall shape and direction.

Still, the main point here is that young composers like Strachan are

being given the resources to write and hear their music. Experience will

control development.