ANOTHER week, another festival, but unlike Swaledale’s mixed weather, Northern Aldborough opened in glorious sunshine, showing off the church and its stained glass windows at their best The first concert brought the renowned and flexible Chamber Domaine who began with Elgar’s Piano Quintet, Op. 84.

His only work in this medium, it’s a remarkably accomplished piece, part of a small group of chamber works written during a brief contented period in his life in 1918.

The piano, for once not at odds with the strings, seemed an integral part, more often supporting them as in the first movement where its lower register blended perfectly with the cello.

The central adagio showed Elgar at his finest, not just for some impassioned playing by the cellist (the Cello Concerto was also written at this time) but also for some fine, swelling string ensemble with rippling piano.

The principal draw of this concert was a performance of Stravinsky’s music theatre piece, the Soldier’s Tale, also written in 1918, played with the original jazz band line up of violin, cornet or trumpet, trombone, clarinet, bassoon, double bass and percussion.

They were fronted by a narrator (Edward Fox), with Walter van Dyk as the Devil, Matthew Sharp as the Soldier (both speaking parts) and dancer Michela Paolacci very ably stepping in at short notice as the Princess.

I found it fascinating to hear Stravinsky’s music complete in its original context and played as well as this but, despite the best efforts of narrator Edward Fox in particular, the text in rhyming couplets seemed just too old fashioned and stilted, making me wonder if it has lost something in translation.

Peter Bevan