THE 2016 Lake District Summer Music Festival opened with a performance of Elgar’s great choral masterpiece The Dream of Gerontius, writes Clive Walkley.

On completion of the work the composer wrote in the score: ‘This is the best of me…’

Sadly, Elgar’s best was not reciprocated by the performers at the work’s first performance in 1900: the chorus had been inadequately prepared and the work met with a cool reception. Fortunately, this was not the case last Saturday evening when the oratorio was performed in Kendal Parish Church before a capacity audience by the newly-formed 150-strong Cumbria Festival Chorus - a merger of Cumbria Choral Initiative and the Mary Wakefield Festival Chorus - and Amabile Girls’ Choir accompanied by the Northern Chamber Orchestra with soloists Joyce Tindsley (mezzo-soprano), Joshua Ellicott (tenor), and Alex Ashworth (bass-baritone), all under the careful direction of Ian Jones.

Arranging the performance space for such large forces in Kendal Parish Church is a logistical headache: the positioning of the main choir on the north side wall with an orchestra in front but divided by pillars and an organ, and three soloists and another smaller choir in the nave, is not ideal. But one of the remarkable features of this performance was the way it held together, especially given limited rehearsal time. But Ian Jones’ clear direction and careful preparation paid off and the work’s emotional impact was overwhelming.

The beautifully played opening orchestral Prelude set the scene for Gerontius’ supplications, so sensitively delivered by Joshua Ellicott. His delivery of the text was dramatic throughout. His visual reaction as he sat down and heard Alex Ashworth’s bass entries in his role of Priest in Part One and Angel of Agony in Part Two carried the work into the realm of theatre, a theatricality reinforced by the positioning of the bass in the pulpit slightly detached from the rest of the singers. Alex Ashworth’s rich bass voice suited this part completely. Joyce Tindsley, in her role as the Angel, sang with great sensitivity, her voice ringing through the church with clarity and beauty.

Many of the huge climaxes throughout Gerontius depend for their impact on the performance of choir and orchestra. After a little lack of focus on their first entry the singers sang with confidence, producing power without losing control and singing pianissimo passages without loss of pitch. The great hymn of praise “Praise the holiest’ was particularly impressive.

After a lapse of 26 years - Gerontius was last heard in Kendal in 1990 - it was a joy and privilege to hear the work again, so expertly performed - and a great credit to all involved.

Meanwhile, this year's glorious Lake District Summer Music gathering of 45 events in 16 venues continues.

Running until August 12, the fortnight-long festival includes a presentation of the 1916 film The Battle of the Somme, the first feature-length war documentary, staged at Kendal Town Hall on Tuesday, August 9 (7.30pm). Composer and percussionist Jan Bradley has been commissioned to improvise a soundtrack live to accompany the screening.

For lovers of opera, LDSM has also put together a specially-devised evening as a showcase for the National Opera Studio with the tantalising title of Royalty, Romans, Rakes and Revenge!

The enchanting evening will include solos, duos, trios and quartets sung by NOS graduates and staged at Kendal's St Thomas's Church on Saturday, August 6 (7.30pm). St Thomas's hosts several must-see LDSM events, including the Skampa Quartet on Friday, August 5 (7.30pm), Manchester Piano Trio, Sunday, August 7 (7.30pm), and the distinguished Chilingirian Quartet on Monday, August 8 (8pm).

Grange-over-Sands' Victoria Hall is the venue for the Maxwell Quartet performance on Wednesday, August 10 (7.30pm), one of the Zeffirellis (Ambleside) LDSM events is the world music-laced Project Jam Sandwich (August 10, 8pm) and among several exciting Ambleside Parish Church festival concerts is the Candlelight Serenade on Friday, August 12 (8pm). Burgeoning talent Chloe Hanslip takes her violin along to Ambleside Parish Church on Monday, August 8 (11am), sharing the spotlight with pianist Danny Driver, and the Ambleside venue hosts another fine ensemble of artistes on Thursday, August 11 (7.30pm) - Yuko Inoue (viola), Christoph Richter (cello) and Andrew Dunlop (piano), whose performance includes works by Beethoven and Bach and Rebecca Clarke's Lullaby and Grotesque for viola and cello.

Box 01539-742621, online at www.ldsm.org.uk, or from the Festival Office at Stricklandgate House, 92 Stricklandgate, Kendal LA9 4PU.