Honouring Elgar is an intrinsic aspect of the Three Choirs festival but this performance of his rarely heard oratorio, The Light of Life, was a bold departure. Elgar himself had conducted the premiere at Worcester in 1896 and, with so many moments redolent of his later oratorios, the sense of a composer beginning to mine a seam of rich inspiration was palpable. Here, Geraint Bowen, Hereford's organist and director of music, brought a clear discipline and broad sweep to the music.

Lux Christi was Elgar's original title for this work, though the flurry of anxiety at Latin in an Anglican cathedral dictated otherwise. Yet, in this story of the miraculous restoration of sight to the blind man as told in St John's gospel, it was indeed the vision of the redeeming light of Christ that drew from the Catholic Elgar the most joyous outpouring. This was most notable in the two extended solos given to the voice of Jesus, where the exemplary baritone of James Rutherford carried both the authority and compassion to achieve the devotional focus that Elgar intended; the fine festival chorus made the final Light of the World a paean of praise worthy of The Dream of Gerontius.

While the debt to Wagner is audible in The Light of Life - Elgar had visited Bayreuth prior to its composition - it was a Brahmsian dignity that characterised Bowen's approach, with the lyricism of the instrumental introductions and postludes care fully shaped and the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra warmly responsive.

Andrew Kennedy, who sang the role of the blind man with an affecting clarity of delivery, was also the eloquent soloist in Britten's Serenade for tenor, horn and strings which opened the concert.

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