Peter Seymour gave a banquet of Britten at the NCEM on Saturday.

To celebrate the 100th anniversary of the composer’s birth, the day was filled with talks, and performances of vocal music by Britten and his contemporaries. The backbone of the day was provided by three of the Five Canticles.

These featured the rich and impassioned tenor of Adrian Thompson, who also gave us a considered and moving rendering of Grainger’s Brigg Fair accompanied by the impeccable University of York Chamber Choir.

The choir was beautifully blended, with a warm alto line, bringing to life the Choral Dances from the composer’s somewhat disregarded Gloriana and excelling in A Hymn to the Virgin, with solo chorus under the tower. Their climax was Grainger’s lovely Skye Boat Song, sung in unison with solo verses from the women.

Yvonne Seymour’s mezzo is perfectly suited to British music of this period, particularly sincere and charming as Isaac and the female half of God with Adrian Thompson in Canticle II. Helen Daffern’s spirited mezzo was featured in songs by Ireland and Bridge and chilled in the unsettling A Charm of Lullabies.

Baritone Stephen Varcoe’s gently fluent performance of Vaughan Williams’ lovely Songs of Travel in the lunchtime concert at first gave the impression that he might be saving his voice for a long day’s singing, but he soon won us over to his careful exposition of the riches of Stevenson’s deceptively simple words. His dramatic Tit for Tat in the last concert was a delight.

- Charles Hunt