Ten years ago, musical Britain was mourning the death of Geoffrey Parsons, favourite pianist of distinguished singers everywhere. This was both a memorial and a fundraiser, with proceeds going to the trust for young accompanists set up in Parsons's name.

Inevitably, the mood was nostalgic, with singers Yvonne Kenny and Thomas Allen and pianist Graham Johnson all able to offer personal glimpses - in Allen's case, something verging on a stand-up routine - into Parsons' artistry. Kenny was at her best in five French songs by Reynaldo Hahn, which she had worked on with Parsons for her first British recital; she shaped them persuasively, with a fluid, sustained tone.

However, the absence due to illness of the third scheduled singer, tenor John Mark Ainsley, meant the nostalgia wasn't all positive. While Ainsley is near his peak as a concert-hall tenor, Kenny is now far more at home in the opera house. Allen is, of course, the consummate professional, and although his voice is still honeyed, it is not quite what it was. They could both have used much more dynamic accompaniment.

Still, Allen provided a spirited start, deftly taking over Ainsley's choice of Haydn's Five English Canzonettas. The first duet, Schubert's Mignon und der Harfner, found the singers buried in their scores, but in the two duos from Mahler's Knaben Wunderhorn they began to spark off each other.

As soloist, Kenny sounded fresh and relaxed in Schubert's Frühlingsglaube, but elsewhere her reined-in high notes verged on harshness, and Copland's Simple Gifts sounded laboured. Allen's three Brahms songs were mellifluous but needed still more intensity. In the second half, however, he was in his element in a selection of the British drawing-room songs he has made his own, playing them straight with just a dash of Val Doonican.

Real schmaltz followed, with Kenny making a meal of So in Love from Kiss Me Kate. But the light touch returned as she and Allen teamed up to finish with Wunderbar, working the audience like the couple of troupers they are.