John Kennedy — acclaimed conductor, composer and host of Music in Time — took the podium at Saturday’s Intermezzo III, offering two choice plums by 20th-Century English master Ralph Vaughan Williams and a neat number from contemporary wizard Ingram Marshall: a composer I’d heard from just the day before in MIT (just below).

I can’t remember when I last heard Kennedy conduct anything that wasn’t nearly new or avant-garde — so it was a treat to hear how beautifully he handled Vaughan Williams’ lovely and wondrously crafted music. Each of the two works we heard — well-nigh half a century apart — was chosen to showcase a really fine soloist from the ranks of the incomparable Spoleto Festival Orchestra (which handled the orchestral playing, too). The first was one of Vaughan Williams’ all-time smash hits: The Lark Ascending, for violin and small orchestra. It’s one of those works that you find on violin showpiece recordings. It’s from fairly early in the composer’s career, when he was considered one of the torchbearers for the so-called “Cowpat School” of English music, which sought to evoke the serene bucolic wonders of the English countryside.

The violin, of course, was our lark — and you could close your eyes and see the little bird rising slowly into the sky … then swooping and fluttering back and forth over placid landscapes, chirping and twittering as she went. Well, I suppose the critter doesn’t have to be a she — but violinist extraordinaire Brittany Boulding did sucn a spledid job if it that I just have to ascribe unto the bird her gentle gender. Her smooth and assured playing enchanted, as her sweet tones drifted in and out of the orchestra’s lush sonic landscapes.

Then we got to hear something entirely different, and from much later in Vaughan Williams’ long and varied career. One of the pursuits of his old age was the exploration of unusual solo instruments — and he picked a good one with the tuba: not much more than an oom-pah-maker to most of us. But his fascinating Concerto in F Minor for Bass Tuba and Orchestra demonstrated the big horn’s potential for songful lyricism, subtlety and agility. It was all still veddy English — but with a much broader range of moods and effects than the previous idyll. And Aubrey Foard’s inspired tuba-tootling was a real treat. He took us through a rollicking fantasia and some tender tuba singing before getting into the final movement’s fireworks. You’d be surprised how FAST that thing can go!

The evening ended on a contemporary note (why am I not surprised, with Kennedy in charge?), with Marshall’s complex, yet musically comfy Orphic Memories. It offers a musical account of the mythical tale of Orpheus in the underworld. Its five section titles speak for themselves: ‘descent,’ ‘Stygian Gates,’ ‘Lost,’ ‘Ascent,’ and ‘Hymn’ — and the composer’s obvious musical symbols and attractive, accesible writing make the story easy to follow. This one may well have opened the ears of some of the audience’s more traditionally-conditioned listeners to that goldurned modern stuff. I’m now officially on the prowl for more of Marshall’s remarkable music.

Oh — and the audience for this one was just about the sparsest I’ve seen at St. Matthews; only the church’s front half was filled. Alas! Many more could’ve enjoyed this lovely and well-made music.