RYEDALE Festival’s concluding Gala Concert, in a congenial setting on a fine summer’s evening, featured Gateshead’s Royal Northern Sinfonia, energetically directed by leader Bradley Creswick.

Opening with Mozart’s Eine Kleine Nachtmusik, only 18 string players filled the large space with rich, vibrant sound. The music flowed naturally, with impressive dynamic contrast.

Michael Berkeley composed his Oboe Concerto in 1977, when still in his twenties. Its first two movements overwork their material, although there are moments of beauty and effective harmonic surprises. There is genuine expansiveness in the finale, an impassioned elegy on the death of the composer’s godfather Benjamin Britten.

Quotation of Britten’s War Requiem is not overdone, and there is a consolatory and serene ending. The soloist was the excellent Steven Hudson, his intonation secure, his tone clear and penetrating. An enthusiastic ovation prompted him to play the first of Britten’s Metamorphoses after Ovid as an encore.

Britten’s Serenade for Tenor, Horn and Strings, with Toby Spence, tenor, and Peter Francomb, horn, had forward momentum throughout; soloists’ timbres were well matched. The dynamic range was striking, Lyke Wake Dirge particularly effective in its approach and retreat. As dusk fell, the performance became suffused with appropriately crepuscular atmosphere.

The final work was Mozart’s Paris Symphony, No. 31, the strings augmented with woodwind, brass and timpani. Here Creswick stood up when urging extra rhythmic bite, or injecting impetus. Its grand first movement, flowing andantino and rousing conclusion with trumpets and drums made it an aptly spirited end to the 2015 festival.