Ailish Tynan in The Turn of the Screw [Manuel Harlan]

THERE aren’t many works of significance in the classical canon that come with Hebrew texts – they’re a hard sing – but one is Leonard Bernstein’s Chichester Psalms: a cantata for choir and orchestra written in the mid-60s for Chichester Cathedral (although Bernstein robbed it of the premiere, which happened a week earlier in New York).

A powerful if sometimes schmaltzy synthesis of Broadway with religion, it contains an other-worldly setting of Psalm 23, The Lord’s My Shepherd, that reduces grown men to tears. And it plays at St John’s Smith Square, Oct 30, in an all-American programme given by the London Choral Sinfonia – a fine ensemble, conducted by Michael Waldron, whose concerts never disappoint.

I just hope they have a boy treble for the solos as Bernstein wanted, allowing the possibility of a countertenor if need be but never a female soprano. Cross that line and you attract the composer’s wrath from beyond the grave. thelcs.org

• This happens to be a strong week for choral rep, with Crouch End Festival Chorus doing Mendelssohn’s trusty Elijah at the Alexandra Palace Theatre, Oct 26 (cefc.org.uk); a student performance of Tippett’s A Child of Our Time, conducted by Martyn Brabbins at the Royal College of Music, Oct 31 (rcm.ac.uk); and what will be an atmospherically charged Britten War Requiem in the sepulchral grandeur of Westminster Cathedral, Oct 30, given by the Bach Choir under David Hill – a distinguished former music director of that great Catholic basilica (thebachchoir.org.uk).

If you’re a Britten fan, his ghost-opera The Turn of the Screw is still at ENO in a production that diminishes the possibilities of the piece (set in a mental hospital, it tells you upfront that the Governess is bonkers and the ghosts imagined) but is nevertheless fascinating and fabulously sung – running to Oct 31 (eno.org). And there’s a Britten rarity at Middle Temple Hall, Oct 30, in The Heart of the Matter: a sequence of Edith Sitwell settings Britten made in 1956 but then shelved. They’re sung here by James Way, who turned out to be the star of this year’s Garsington Midsummer Night’s Dream – in a modest role with which he nonetheless stopped the show. Pianist Julius Drake and horn player Richard Watkins accompany. (templemusic.org)

• The Royal Academy of Music has an autumn keyboard festival running Oct 29, and it launches a project in which students work their way through the entirety of Schumann’s output for solo piano – 15 hours of music that will, understandably, come in instalments. ram.ac.uk
And if that’s not enough Schumann, his crazy keyboard masterpiece Kreisleriana is featured at the intimate 1901 Arts Club, Waterloo, Oct 29, by pianist Panos Karan. 1901artsclub.com

• Also at the Royal Academy, Oct 25, there’s what will presumably be a period-conscious performance of orchestral works by Brahms and Mendelssohn, done by student players but directed by the eminent master of historical practice Trevor Pinnock. ram.ac.uk

• Finally, of all the dazzling young violinists on the world circuit today, there’s none with greater dazzle (or finesse) than the 24-year-old Swedish/Norwegian Johan Dalene. He plays Prokofiev’s 2nd Concerto at Cadogan Hall, Oct 30, with the RPO. An early fireworks night. cadoganhall.com