"YLMF's last weekend was as powerful as its first. When you spend a third of your entire festival budget on a vocal quartet, you expect a bang for your bucks.

The Hilliard Ensemble did not disappoint on Friday. Ian Pace delivered an equally uncompromising piano recital on Saturday, showcasing York's university composers, past and present.

Traditional Armenian sharakans (sacred songs) were not expected repertory in this context. But the Hilliards resurrected seven that verged on the territory of cantor and muezzin, with some luscious harmony thrown in.


There was further, welcome historical perspective from 15th-century England and Italy, in Sheryngham's tender dialogue carol, Ah, Gentle Jesu, and a pleasing "lauda" adapted from vernacular song. At the other end of the spectrum, James Macmillan's here in hiding , conflating poems by Hopkins and Aquinas, gave the evening a jolting start. But its early dissonance mellowed into an effective, penitential close.

Ivan Moody's leisurely Arkhangelos (1989) brooded over an ikon in much more traditional style. But Alexander Raskatov's Praise was a bridge too far, mainly solemn, very close harmony that demanded a much warmer acoustic. Indeed the Hilliards, for all their remarkable finesse, might have been less austere in their menu.

Pace's retrospective of 40 years of university achievement was an inspired idea. Music by Robert Sherlaw Johnson framed the evening, first his gritty Seven Short Pieces (1969), homage to his wife and former colleagues here, and then his Third Piano Sonata (!976), a highly expressive concoction of widely-spaced, Romantic gestures.

In much sparer style was John Paynter's new Five Reflections, titled by fragments from Seamus Heaney. There was plenty to tease, but not to tax, the ear here, notably in a thrumming ostinato and a lilting lullaby. Further nostalgia came with Wilfrid Mellers's folksy Cat Charms, David Blake's purposeful Variations Op 1, Roger Marsh's decorative Easy Steps, Nicola LeFanu's intriguing Chiaroscuro and Richard Orton's extreme minimalism. Edward Caine represented the present day.

Pace's chameleon ability to adapt instantly to so many styles served him excellently."