John Pickard is a man committed to looking at the great scheme of things, posting bad reviews as well as good on his website. His latest composition, a Presteigne Festival commission, is a one-star piece only in the sense that, astronomically speaking, its subject is Orion the most splendid constellation.

The three-movement work for trumpet and organ is partly programmatic: Nebula presents disparate strands, their gradual coalescence creating rising tension out of which a dramatic trumpet statement emblazons the air. In Alnitak, a short hunting scene for the mythological Orion is framed by lyrical sections, which Pickard shrewdly sets for flugelhorn, giving a richly burnished sound in the context of St Andrew's Church. Betelgeuse (part of Orion's belt) depicts that star's eventual fate "dispersal into the depths of space" with paroxyms of virtuoso trumpet reaching a climax but, in response to fading chord clusters in the organ, then becoming more and more faint. Having soloist Alison Balsom remove to the Chapel for these dying moments risked being stagey, especially since organist Jonathan Scott was in full view, but luckily it created a spatial effect which made a musical point.

Orion did not match the impact of Pickard's song cycle The Borders of Sleep, sung the previous day by baritone Damian Thantrey with pianist Iwan Llewelyn-Jones. The cycle, a setting of nine poems by Edward Thomas deals with death, its dark and often raw emotion vividly expressed and most senstively realised here.

Artistic director George Vass's mix of associate composers, featured artists, formal and informal talk, makes this festival. Programming Balsom in John McCabe's Rainforest II, with its brilliant trumpet against 11 solo strings, in the closing concert was an inspired choice. And while the balance of contemporary British with French composers occasionally seemed contrived, the Fidelio Quartet's memorable performance of Fauré's Piano Quartet was vindication enough.