Never again will I take cheese with my supper before I attend a concert - it might lead to a repeat performance of Piers Hellawell's Cors de Chasse.

The world premiere of this piece was a raucous, discordant and cacophonous and was, thankfully, only 14 minutes long. I saw where he was coming from, the use of hunts in the chase goes back centuries, as does using the brass and hunt calls in the Concert Hall.

But this nightmarish piece marred an otherwise stunning opening concert to the Brighton Festival and, to my mind, wasted the undoubted talents of trumpeter Haken Hardenberger and trombonist Jonus Byund.

If performed at all, this concerto would far better suit a jazz/funk/fusion quartet rather than a 100-strong orchestra.

That apart, the concert was a magnificent tribute to Festival founder Ronald Bates and founding artistic director Sir Ian Hunter, who both died earlier this year.

It opened with a brand-new brass fanfare, written by James Morgan and his wife Juliette Pochin, both responsible for Brighton Festival Chorus and Brighton Festival Youth Chorus.

By placing the brass up in the circle, the couple achieved a surround-sound effect which was clear and exciting.

And by using a similar theme of Corelli's, it immediately led into Sir Michael Tippett's Fantasia Concertante On The Theme Of Corelli.

Tippett was one of the great writers for strings of the 20th Century and the Philharmonia Orchestra, under the frenetic Thierry Fischer, gave it full reign.

It was this dreamy piece, with its great calm and softness, that was brutally ended by Hellawell's ghastly piece of programming, although it certainly woke the audience up.

But the centre piece was the glorious Janacek's Glagolitic Mass, in which the Brighton Festival Chorus (BFC) surpassed itself.

Maestro Fischer got the best sound from the BFC I have ever heard. The Chorus is at a peak just now but with this performance it scaled an Everest and all in Old Church Slavonic as well.

The Mass is a marvellous mix of huge fanfare-like pieces and moments of calm contemplation, dealing more with human concerns than the religious.

The soloist are not given enough to do but I could have listened to the Chorus for ever and wanted it to repeat the performance as soon as it had ended.

The final moment, on a "hired-in" organ (the Dome's own instrument is still not ready) was a little ragged but I didn't care. This was a choral work written for a great choir and that is just what it sounded like.

Overall, this was an opening concert of great power, great subtly, fine performance, and above all, excitement.

Supported by The Real Return, Veritas Asset Management and The Arts Trust Of Brighton And Hove.