No matter that the £20 notes bearing his face have been withdrawn from circulation, Edward Elgar still reigns supreme at the Three Choirs festival. Adrian Partington, in his first stint as artistic director at Gloucester, reinforced the association by making The Kingdom the single work of this year's opening night.

Central to the nature of Elgar's major choral works is the composer's deeply rooted Catholicism. The fact that, in 1901, it was Gloucester Cathedral's dean who banned The Dream of Gerontius – due to unease about its setting of Cardinal Newman's poem – only underlined Elgar's extraordinary tenacity in pursuing his vision of The Kingdom as an oratorio exalting the role of St Peter as the establishing rock of the Christian church.

It was this sense of a profoundly personal affirmation of faith that came across most convincingly, thanks primarily to the authority of Roderick Williams. His beautifully inflected and burnished baritone made Peter's passionate conviction the dramatic heart of the work. None of the other soloists, Susan Gritton, Pamela Helen Stephen and Adrian Thompson could begin to match Williams for clarity and insight, though Gritton wisely saved her best for the intimacy of The Sun Goeth Down.

The Philharmonia – in residence this week – could be relied upon to realise the quiet ecstasy of Elgar's string-writing just as well as its joyful brassy surges. Adrian Partington proved a steady hand in guiding the transitions from hushed invocation to the rushing wind and flaming tongues of the holy spirit, but his conducting came most urgently to life in the choruses, where the massed festival voices responded with fervour.