Yes, you read it correctly: the orchestra formerly known as the Northern Sinfonia has just been awarded regal status.

The Newcastle-based band has been an infrequent visitor to these parts recently. So its appearance at the festival’s closing gala was doubly welcome.

As if in celebration, the strings (the rest had a night off) were in truly majestic form, led by the redoubtable Bradley Creswick in a classic English programme.

Elgar’s Introduction & Allegro benefited from the presence of the Szymanowskis, who milked every last drop of colour from their solo roles.

There was a brilliant urgency to what William Mann once memorably called the ‘scrubbing idea’, followed by a forceful fugue, tautly delivered.

Using the same forces, Cheryl Frances-Hoad, herself a cellist and this year’s composer-in-residence, showed a deft hand at string-writing in her new The Dreams That Fly From Me, a title inspired by Ivan Goll’s poem, Bloodhound.

A slow, studied opening led into a jagged, bouncing motif in which the orchestra alone worked up a considerable frenzy. The re-entry of the quartet had a calming effect, the textures becoming more staccato, eventually ending abruptly – and leaving a hunger for more. Hers is an exciting talent.

A jaunty account of Warlock’s Capriol Suite prefaced the Tallis Fantasia of Vaughan Williams, whose sublime finish was a rare vision of timelessness.

It was especially apt in an evening given in memory of Sir Marcus Worsley (1925-2013), a long-time festival enthusiast, and supported by the Gilham Trust.

Morning coffee concerts are a delightful staple of this festival; two earlier last week made a strong impression.

James Turnbull, accompanied by Libby Burgess, sustained a fluent-toned oboe through English composers, ranging from a pleasingly Schumannesque sonatina by Thomas Walmisley to John Casken’s harlequinade, Amethyst Deceiver.

There was wit and swagger, too, in Britten’s quirky Temporal Variations. Chi-Chi Nwanoku’s extraordinarily agile double bass, alongside Christopher Glynn’s piano, illuminated an esoteric journey from the 18th century, through Dragonetti, right up to music theatre, in Joëlle Leandre’s Taxi! A real tonic.