Improbable though it seems, this week you can't move for Britten operas: a blistering Turn of the Screw at ENO, Peter Hall's much loved Glyndebourne Albert Herring at Sadler's Wells, a celebrity-cast Billy Budd at the Barbican and, last night, that most tricky of late works, Owen Wingrave, in concert at Cadogan Hall. Britten's star has never been higher.

Even the commitment of conductor Richard Hickox and the superb City of London Sinfonia, however, could not entirely disguise the opera's ponderous start. What viewers made of this BBC2 commission back in 1971 is hard to imagine: static, ponderous, untelevisual, it seems ideal off-button material. Yet stick with it and this strange, spiky score builds to a devastating conclusion, and remains a powerful hymn to pacifism.

Hickox, well underway with his award-winning Britten series for Chandos, is recording Wingrave for release in 2008. The cast was first rate, with a welcome appearance by Britten veteran Elizabeth Connell as Miss Wingrave, with Pamela Helen Stephen a strong, nervy, headstrong Kate.

We should celebrate, especially, the current glut of British tenors and baritones so ideally suited to this repertoire. Peter Coleman-Wright (Owen), Alan Opie (Coyle), James Gilchrist (Lechmere) and Robin Leggate (General and Narrator) made every word audible, even if this concert performance could have benefited from some semi or even demi-semi-staging.

Fittingly, it was dedicated to the memory of CLS trombonist Roger Brenner, who played in the original performance nearly four decades ago.