Venue: Huddersfield Town Hall

Ensemble intercontemporain finally make it to the Huddersfield Contemporary Music Festival – and leave an indelible mark with their unrivalled artistry.

Handel and the Huddersfield Choral Society go way back, and their union is probably listed somewhere in the Old Testament.

The bicentenary of Richard Wagner’s birth is inescapable, and it comes as no surprise that, however brief their offering, an institution as august as the Huddersfield Choral Society (HCS) could not allow the moment to pass without taking advantage of the opportunity to perform one of Wagner’s most impressive choral outbursts – “Wacht auf! Es nahet gen den Tag” (Awake! the dawn of day draws near) f

Once upon a time it was standard practice that most public concerts in Britain would be preceded by the National Anthem; last night in Huddersfield Town Hall a great many members of the audience were caught off guard when a brass and percussion fanfare struck up into the loudest, most ecstatic rendition of ‘God Save the Queen’ I have ever heard.