Of all the many commemorative events in this World War I centenary year marking the particular battles of 1916, Chris Latham's Sacrifice: The Lost Songbirds of the Somme must rank among the finest and most moving. In an audience replete with military and civil dignitaries, an all-pervading atmosphere of humility was palpable, as those gathered listened to the harvest of creativity from the battlefield. How poignant to listen to the music composed by young soldiers who hoped to leave behind for future generations music embodying the beauty within the human soul despite the barbaric behaviour and horrific conditions that surrounded them.

Latham is the artistic director of the four-year Flowers of War project, which is funded through several sources, including the Anzac Centenary Cultural Fund, the Mission Centenaire in France, the Franco-German Fund and the Catalyst Fund. At the core of the project is extensive research into the artistic contributions of composers, musicians and visual artists who were killed, gravely injured or affected by World War I.

Tenor Andrew Goodwin sang with the voice of that golden generation, born into an era of such promise as modernism replaced the formality of the Victorian age. Goodwin's slow-walking entry with the opening pianissimo bars of Handel's Dead March from Saul set the grave, underlying tone for the evening. In the subsequent songs with their nuances of pastoral themes, echoes of Palm Court salon music redolent of pleasant summer afternoons beyond the sound of bombardment, Goodwin's pure notes soared like the questing spirits of the composers who sought to recapture in music the blessed memory of freedom.

Latham's sensitive arrangements for the Sculthorpe String Quintet of the 18 works, particularly the lovely Septimus Kelly Elegy and Somme Lament, were careful translations of the composers' original intentions, and the flow from one setting to the next was complementary. Jacques Ibert's Noel en Picardie was a delightful interlude after the Dead March and was followed by the deceptively light-hearted song Suzette by George Wilkinson, and Willie Braithwaite Manson's ballad setting, When I Came Last to Ludlow.

Perhaps the most enduring theme throughout the concert was the all-pervading sense of equanimity that each composer strove to re-establish through using repeated motifs and fluid, open modality in their music, while around them all that was solid was smashed and ripped apart. Of course, the sound of the bagpipes in the stirring Reel of Tulloch and the transcendent lament The Battle of the Somme could not fail to stir the heart. The audience was immersed in the terrible depth of emotion every composer, musician and their fellow soldiers endured as they struggled to translate conflict into some kind of meaning.

Latham and his musicians should be very proud to have brought the music of the battlefields back to life, honouring these musicians who, as Stephen Spender wrote, "left the vivid air signed with their honour".