Elgar remains the staple of Three Choirs festival, but this early commemoration of the 10th anniversary of 9/11 saw the brave choice of John Adams's work On the Transmigration of Souls, written for the first anniversary, being staged.

While the work was paired with Mozart's Requiem, Adams himself avoided the words requiem or memorial, and the attendant musical conventions. He sought instead a contemplative piece, where transmigration may apply to the movement of thoughts, as well as souls, founded in the belief that suffering and loss can ultimately be a transformative experience. Adams also eschewed narrative, using a litany of names and messages posted in tribute floating in air, much as the scraps of paper thrown from the twin towers by those who would not survive. But words proved less emotive than the sounds: the voices of the choristers of Hereford, Gloucester and Worcester Cathedrals had a piercing, bright innocence, and in the wake of an intense climax, after which the musical structure collapses in on itself, came the gentle clamour of bells and tiny cymbals. This work may not be vintage Adams, yet in the context of Worcester's ancient cathedral, the sense of awe he sought was certainly invoked, and Adrian Partington conducted the chorus and Philharmonia Orchestra with conviction.

An elegiac quality also marked Cheryl Frances-Hoad's new work for cello and piano premiered in Jamie Walton and Daniel Grimwood's afternoon recital. Handled with assurance by the composer and beautifully articulated by Walton, such elegies are far from inappropriate for the cello's timbre, and in Elgar country, too, but this was rather curious for being entitled Songs and Dances. A slight misnomer there.