Three concerts in one evening, in separate venues a short walk apart, made for a sumptuous spread, the three courses together typifying the immense variety of English musical cuisine between the 13th and 16th centuries.

The evening also came closest to embodying the festival’s 60th anniversary celebration of the Festival of Britain, with its innovatory series of concerts “exploring the dawn of a new Elizabethan era”. These in turn sparked the ‘early music’ revival which is this festival’s very raison d’être.

The Dufay Collective, a sextet, delivered a welcome blast of cool, clear mediaeval air in a collection of anonymous songs and dances, Echoes of Albion. Vivien Ellis’s luminous soprano, adopting the accents of early English, shone a gentle light on the innocent pleasures of countryside and religion.

Two vielles - early fiddles - with a pair of lap-held harps and recorder or bagpipes injected a variety of toe-tapping dances. Sumer Is Icumen In - probably our oldest hit - was the predictable highlight, sung solo, tutti and as a round, closely rivalled by Merry It Is, in similar folkish vein.

The Orlando Consort - countertenor, two tenors and a bass - centred their beautifully tailored programme around the sacred music of John Dunstaple, whose ‘contenance angloise’ (English manner) was widely imitated on the continent in the 15th century. Its new style of (mainly major-key) harmony and rhythmic imitation was easily heard in the amazingly complex Veni Sancte Spiritus and in the smoothly interlocking melodies of a three-part Gloria. Not all was so strait-laced. Two lively carols and a near-loveletter to the woman of Shunam restored a pleasing balance.

The Rose Consort of Viols, five hardy perennials here, took something of a back seat to the newly-formed Festival Consort of Voices and the masterful lutenist Jacob Heringman. The five singers took time to suppress their solo instincts, but eventually found a spirited blend in madrigals by Thomas Morley and in John Wilbye’s extended Weep, Weep Mine Eyes, their best contribution.

Heringman’s careful treatment of Dowland’s tricky Farewell Fancy and his sparkling trio of pieces by Antony Holborne took us right to the heart of England’s Golden Age. The Rose were at their incomparable best in Dowland’s Lacrimae Antiquae, with lute, and piled on the melancholy with Morley’s eloquent duo Il Lamento.

Mahan Esfahani had earlier switched effortlessly between harpsichord and the more intimate virginals in toccatas, toyes and fancies from Elizabeth and Jacobean England. Always one to live dangerously, he took on some of the toughest pieces, notably Byrd’s Walsingham variations, and won the day with dazzling virtuosity. A maestro already, and still only 27.