Themed festivals walk a narrow road between having too many topics, leading to incoherence, and concentrating on too few, leading to indigestion.

Yet again the Presteigne Festival director, George Vass, has found this road and produced a six-day feast of music-making to match any of its rivals.

It is not alone this year in celebrating the centenary of Michael Tippett's birth, even if few performances elsewhere of his first two Piano Sonatas will match those by Matthew Schellhorn, who characterised their diverse materials with wonderful sharpness and stunning virtuosity.

But Vass's eye (or ear) for the less well trodden led him also to another centenarian, Alan Rawsthorne, one of those many fine British craftsmen who found life tough in the period of Glock/Boulez domination, but who have never lost devotees among the more discerning.

John McCabe's talk on the composer was exceptionally helpful and enlightening, showing how Rawsthorne was moving at the end of his life towards a more Romantic style.

The festival got off to a cracking start with a powerful and energetic performance of Elgar's "string thing", otherwise known as Introduction and Allegro.

If not every corner was perfectly turned, that was a very small price to pay for such excitement, amid which Vass chose every now and then to take his time and savour the quality of inspiration. Elgar called the work "a tribute to that sweet borderland where I have made my home" - what with that and a premiere in 1905, it would have been hard to choose a more apt beginning to the festivities.

Another highlight for me was the concert by the Dante Quartet on Friday night. They responded not only to the quicksilver rhythms of Tippett's Second Quartet but also to its underlying lyricism, while the opening bars of the Schubert A minor Quartet came over as deeply mysterious, a melancholy meditation that hardly dared to break into music.

Equally impressive was the performance on Monday night by four different players of Messiaen's extraordinary Quartet for the End of Time. All of them entered fully into its other-worldly moods, ranging from rapt singing to furious athleticism, and Katharine Gowers' playing of the final movement held the whole audience in thrall.

In Tuesday's final concert, Gowers also gave us a mesmerising account of Vaughan Williams's The Lark Ascending and took advantage of the exceptionally clear acoustics of St Andrew's Church to play really quietly and still be heard right at the back - a lesson to all performers in this venue! The festival ended with Mozart's Symphony 29, given with all the sparkle and wit one could ask for.

Next year's festival will mark anniversaries of Britten and Shostakovitch, amid much else.

Let's hope that with the festival's own 25th anniversary coming up in 2007, the Welsh Arts Council will give thought to increasing its financial support for this admirable enterprise, embodying George Vass's belief that "it is important we do something for this area and the wonderful people who live here".

ROGER NICHOLS