YORK Late Music’s concert series continues to titillate, refresh and inspire. The first Saturday of the month in spring and summer has become a date to block off in the diary. Orichalcum was on parade last Saturday, with a medley of British composers (plus Arvo Pärt).

Michael Nyman’s film scores lend themselves to concert performance: the jazzy, jumbled start of Masque Arias, taken from Prospero’s Books, gradually clarified under Orichalcum’s excellent focus. Danielle Howard’s Blue Pavilion was a slow-burning blues, chordal with decorations, with a sure sense of direction; she is clearly a name to watch.

David Lancaster’s Breathless, which enjoyed its premiere, has two parts. ‘Unit’ is a frisky staccato built on catchy syncopation first heard in the tuba. ‘Aria’ dispatches the trumpets to the wings for stereophonic close harmony, slowly dying to a peaceful close. A crafty piece, both exciting and intriguing.

Adam’s Rib, by James MacMillan, has two low, slow chorales enclosing an exciting fanfare based on the same harmonies. Its ultra-muted finish was equally engaging. Pärt’s Magnificat, bumpily played, failed to convince, even in Murphy McCaleb’s astute transcription.

John McCabe’s Hawk In Winter Light ‘circled’ neatly before turning surprisingly electric. Three transcribed Tallis motets were threaded into the menu, their ‘false relations’ as modern now as they were 450 years ago.

Earlier. David Lumsdaine’s fascinating electronic collage of the Durham Miners’ Gala, Big Meeting (1971), made a fitting tribute to the composer’s 85th birthday year, brimming with nostalgia and animation.