THE cathedral city of Gloucester is playing host to the 274th Three Choirs Festival, starting on Saturday, August 18.

The event comes in the 100th anniversary year of the birth of composer Gerald Finzi and the programme includes a many of his best-known works.

The cathedral itself will once again be the focal point for a week of splendid music, with the Philharmonia Orchestra playing a major part, together with the combined choirs of Hereford, Gloucester and Worcester cathedrals.

After the splendour of the opening service, the first cathedral concert will begin with the Fantasia on a Theme of Thomas Tallis by Vaughan Williams, which was premiered at the cathedral in 1910. The concert will also feature Elgar's Symphony No 2 and the first performance of a newly-discovered orchestral song by Vaughan Williams, a setting of words by Walt Whitman entitled Whispers of Heavenly Death. The work of Frederick Delius features prominently in the recitals, including a performance of the Violin Sonata arranged for viola by Lionel Tertis and performed by Paul Silverthorne. There is also the eagerly-anticipated first festival performance of A Mass of Life. The week's programme also includes Walton's Viola Concerto and Holst's Hymn of Jesus, while in Purcell's Dido and Aeneas there will be a chance to hear the major solos performed by young musicians who are now embarking on a professional career after training at the Royal College of Music.

A commission for the festival by Patrick Gowers, a London-based composer who has written many scores for television, has had to be postponed after he suffered a stroke. His piece, a choral and orchestral work entitled Thus My Heart Was Grieved, is now scheduled to be played at the 2004 festival. A piece by David Griggs, Creation, will take its place at this year's event.

To book, call 01452 312990. The full programme is at www.3choirs.org