According to BBC Radio 3 In-Tune, music in the round has revolutionised the way people listen to music.

So said a note in the programme.

Well, for starters, it’s nothing new; and, if Friday’s concert at the Wiltshire Music Centre is anything to go by I’m certainly not convinced about the revolution.

We were positioned in three rows on three sides, all on the stage on the same level, with the performers roughly in the middle.

So, seeing was difficult. The other major problem was that a tremendously powerful singer was too in your face.

I found it all too much. Music needs space and what is wrong with using the wonderful acoustic of the centre for the purpose for which it was intended?

Farnsworth has a cultured, forceful tone, an incisive diction with a dramatic, theatrical presentation. To perform this poetic, romantic song cycle (Die Schone Mullerin, by Schubert) with almost Teutonic precision was, indeed, impressive.

No less wondrous was James Baillieu’s piano accompaniment. It was restrained, almost understated and reassuringly supportive, but, when Schubert was at his most demanding, Baillieu turned it on like a tap.