Composer Qigang Chen reached a global audience at the Beijing Olympics’ opening ceremony, but his characteristic approach is the delicate weaving together of his Chinese heritage with western disciplines. Chen has been based in Paris since studying with Olivier Messiaen, and traces of the master’s harmony and colour continue to influence his writing.

In the choral and orchestral work Jiang Tcheng Tse – given its European premiere with the forces of the BBC National Orchestra of Wales under Alexandre Bloch, Chen confronts his personal experience of loss in the setting of a text by Su Shi (1037-1101). A bereaved man imagines being reunited with his beloved wife and the atmosphere created had mystery and reverence, its most striking texture that of the single soloist, singing in Peking-opera style. Meng Meng’s high soprano was haunting: the inflections of her keening lament took on an otherworldly quality and the murmured responses of the double chorus on either side added to the music’s rarefied aura.

David Lang is another composer featured in this year’s Vale of Glamorgan festival. His work, World to Come, was conceived in the aftermath of the events of 9/11 and also dealt with death and the life of the soul. Played in its original version for cello and audio replay by Alice Neary in her brilliant solo recital, the balance of restless questing and mournfully lyrical lines created a feeling of timelessness in Ewenny Priory – somehow all the more resonant for the sense of Norman history coinciding chronologically with China’s Song dynasty.

• Vale of Glamorgan festival runs until 16 May. Box office: 0333-666 3366.