Thanks to spirited campaigning, Cheltenham has finally paid proper homage to its most famous musical son. Earlier this year a fine statue of Gustav Holst was unveiled in Imperial Gardens. He is conducting (left-handed), surrounded by jets of water and carved panels aptly depicting the mythological figures that gave their names to the planets.

So it was fitting that Holst’s Planets suite was the main item in the concert, kicking off the town’s two-week music festival. In the elegantly marbled but comparatively compact town hall much of it was spine-judderingly loud. The cataclysmic climax of Mars, the Bringer of War could probably have been heard on Mars itself.

But was this entirely due to the acoustic? The young Polish conductor Michal Dworzynski presented rather a dour and strenuous view of the piece. There was more bombast than jollity in Jupiter, and a heavy, humourless feel to Mercury and Venus. Out in Imperial Garden, I think Holst might have been murmuring “lighten up, laddie”.

The BBC Philharmonic and Dworzynski did a more interesting job on three rarities. One was Britten’s surprisingly dark and mysterious Suite on English Folk Tunes, written in his illness-racked last year, and full of anguished dissonances as well as quirky instrumental touches. It should be played more often. So should Percy Grainger’s Pastoral – dripping with Delius-like nostalgia and an orchestration clangorous with bells – and his gloriously skewwhiff and bucolic Gum-Suckers March. Crazy name, crazy piece.

As a sublime antidote to all that hearty machismo, the festival’s second concert featured Trio Mediaeval. Three intense Norwegian women singing unaccompanied 13th-century motets: it doesn’t sound promising, does it? But I was spellbound.

Light, beautifully tuned voices, wonderful dynamic variety, perfect rapport, imaginative presentation – a true masterclass in a cappella singing. And the medieval material was leavened by artfully arranged Scandinavian folk songs and an ascetic yet atmospheric new piece by Andrew Smith. Beg, borrow, steal or (preferably) buy their CDs on the ECM label.

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