On a drizzly Remembrance Sunday afternoon, you might not expect a concert of Russian songs about love and loss to lift you from gloom. But the programme was cleverly structured and the three local singers all consistently thoughtful and light of touch. From the opening Spanish song cycle by Shostakovich (performed with great lyricism by mezzo soprano Helen Newsom), there was an undercurrent of irony, a twinkle of romance in the air.

Soprano Christiane Bracher, whose late-night Shostakovich recital went down a storm at last year's Oxford Lieder festival, joined Newsom for a series of Tchaikovsky duets. These, I felt, were the least successful part of the concert, lacking in dramatic detail and variation of vocal tone. The bright timbre of the Holywell's Steinway piano against the bare walls of that venue sounded too thin for Tchaikovsky's distinctively yearning voice. In contrast, Bracher seemed in her element with the Benjamin Britten setting of Pushkin's The Poet's Echo. Her appreciation of textual nuance, her ability to be at once both delicate and intense, were perfect attributes for these very English Russian songs.

To round off an ambitious evening - bring on the tenor, replace gowns with peasant garb, and open out the space. Alexander Massey joined the two female singers in a series of Yiddish folk songs by Shostakovich. With intelligent use of the raised platform and the auditorium, the trio presented a seamless dramatic staging, quite in keeping with the rest of the programme. Their acting was modestly restrained, with Massey managing to morph from departing lover to abandoned father without a jolt. Bracher's poise in Young Girl's Song perfectly complimented Newsom's fulsome Yiddisher Mama, celebrating her sons becoming doctors in the final number. A satisfying evening, then, artfully framed by Shostakovich at his most entertaining. "A star shines above our heads! Oy!" read the final line of the translation. And out we poured on to the sparkling pavements, our Remembrance Day spirits lifted high.