Presteigne's intriguing mix of Georgian houses and artisans offers an ideal background for the festival's similarly unselfconscious mix of classical and contemporary music. It's notable that audiences here receive new works with as much enthusiasm – often more – as old ones.

Martin Butler's Concerto for Soprano Saxophone and Strings is a jaunty affair. Lively, insistent rhythms propel its dancing outer sections with unflagging, minimalist energy, while the raw silk of the saxophone's tone is highlighted in the central cantilena. Only the initial gear change between fast and slow felt awkwardly handled. Amy Dickson, the fluent soloist with artistic director George Vass's Festival Orchestra, also premiered Steve Martland's Short Story in the concert with her sax quartet, Zephirus. Martland wittily plays low against high, with bluff and gutsy contributions from the bass saxophone defining the storyline.

But the outstanding contributions to this early part of the festival came from the Carducci Quartet, whose high-octane playing balanced control with devil-may-care spontaneity. They found a compelling emotional intensity in Adrian Williams's new String Quartet No 4, and, together with tenor James Gilchrist, they brought a tightly focused drama to Huw Watkins's In My Craft Or Sullen Art, a setting of a Dylan Thomas poem first heard two years ago at the Wigmore Hall. Watkins sets the poem twice, in a structure crafted so as to offset austerity with moments of vibrancy. It was realised with considerable insight by Gilchrist and the Carduccis.