Northern Sinfonia / Pierre-Andre Valade, Snape Maltings Concert Hall, Snape, Suffolk

There can be few lovelier places than the Snape Maltings Concert Hall on a perfect summer's evening. The Englishness of it – fen and reed – is palpable. So a triple bill of works by English composers serves to compare and contrast not only the music but the sensibilities of three artists to the world outside.

Gustav Holst, Benjamin Britten and Jonathan Harvey provide a snapshot of British music through the last century. All three, in this programme, turn as a basis to poetic myth – Holst to the Mahabharata, Britten to Greek mythology, Harvey to 8th-century Chinese poetry. The musical link is a textural colouring in the instrumentation of the three works plus a mezzo-soprano who takes centre stage. Indeed, it was Sarah Connolly's evening.

The pairing of Britten's Phaedra with Holst's Savitri is a strong one: woman in lustful and remorseful revenge; woman defying death through the redemption of love. Phaedra, lasting less than 20 minutes, packs an enormous emotional punch. It was written for Janet Baker in 1975, with its premiere at the Maltings, so a tough call for Connolly. She may lack the panoply of Baker's vocal colours but she does not lack power. She savoured love's anguish delivering Lowell's words with smouldering voice, while the ending suicide, removing her jewellery with steady gaze, was simple and unadorned. The drama, alas, was played out against a squeaky perambulating wall which offered Connolly little aid.

This same wall – fortunately now motionless – sported a vivid Howard Hodgkin in reds, pinks, yellows and black as an oppressive backdrop to Holst's Savitri. With tables turned, Connolly was now white-tunic-ed innocence defending white-tunic-ed husband from black-tunic-ed Death. Stephen Richardson boomed his deathly wishes with a not-altogether-inappropriate hollowness of sound, while Peter Wedd succumbed to Death's demands in powerful, clearly focused voice.

Savitri is a fascinating attempt by Holst to throw off the reins of Wagner but flashes of the older master riddle the work. From the sound of the cor anglais to a virtual cod "Liebestod", Tristan lurks in the wings. Lindy Hume's direction produced strong stage pictures: Savitri's scheming seduction of Death over the body of her husband; the dragging cross-stage of the body by Death; the presence of arms and hands.

The two staged works were prefaced by a new commission from Jonathan Harvey. Songs of Li Po is a concert work for mezzo, strings, percussion and harpsichord, three settings of verses by the poet of Mahler's Das Lied von der Erde. The business is in the strings, mock-Chinese sounds provided by detuned harpsichord and fingered percussion. Emotionally restrained yet unusually lyrical for Harvey, it provided little more than a warm up.