THE annual Three Choirs Festival this summer comes to Hereford with concerts, talks, exhibitions and a lively fringe.

The composer Hector Berlioz is one of the main focuses of this year's event, with performances of L'enfance du Christ and Les Nuits d't.

There are also performances of works first heard in 1803, 1903 and 2003, starting with a rare recital of Beethoven's cantata Christus am Olberge. A hundred years later the Hereford festival commissioned Hubert Parry to write Voces Clamantium and this year the premiere of Anthony Powers' setting of words by John Donne, Air and Angels, takes place at the festival.

The week begins with William Mathias' celebratory choral cantata This Worlde's Joie and ends with Verdi's famous Requiem.

Between those two performances, the 50th anniversary of the Queen's coronation will be marked with Mozart's Coronation Mass and Parry's I Was Glad, it its original orchestral version. The deaths of Bax and Prokofiev in that year will also be marked with a major orchestral work from each.

The cathedral choirs of Hereford, Worcester and Gloucester will combine in works by Bach in a programme that includes Handel's recently rediscovered Gloria.

Malvern's English Symphony Orchestra, conducted by William Boughton, perform a programme of works by British composers including Holst, Warlock, Finzi and Britten on Monday, August 18 at Wyastone Leys, near Monmouth.

Other big names include the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra and Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra, conductor Adrian Lucas, violinist Tasmin Little and contralto Catherine Wyn-Rogers, amongst a long list of guest artists.

A total of 50 events take place between August 16 and 22. For details, call 01432 354597.