Cork 2005: The West Cork Chamber Music Festival is a lily that does not need gilding, but this year the assistance of Cork 2005 in addition to its other major sponsors (which include RTÉ, the RTÉ Vanbrugh String Quartet and the Arts Council) allows a range and intensity that is almost lush.

It seems impossible that this festival - which continues until July 3rd - is only 10 years old, given its almost institutional status.

While this recognition may have been the original objective, rarely can so specialised an art form in so unlikely a place as the coast of west Cork have reached fruition with such rapidity. The headline Irish premiere of Anthony Powers' song cycle based on Station Island by Seamus Heaney takes place tomorrow evening at St Brendan's Church in Bantry, which is also the venue for Wednesday's main evening concert. This begins with Britten's The Canticles, and the centrepiece is Mahler's Das Lied von der Erde performed by a special festival ensemble conducted by Laurent Wagner.

Everything happens in or near Bantry House, with the major concerts taking place in a high-ceilinged library looking over gardens and reached by a sky-high flight of steps. At the other side of the house the vista spreads to embrace Bantry Bay, with the mountain borders of Kerry on the horizon. But landscape is not enough, and the organisers of this 10th-anniversary event have provided a full and fascinating programme covering the music of 20 nations and 300 years. There is a special focus on Schubert and Mahler, but Spohr, Babadjanyan, Silvestrov, Martin, Part and Mansurian are included in a festival that unites established and emerging musicians and composers.

These riches are augmented by the annex events, such as the photographic exhibition of Achim Liebold's Faces of Music, based on his portraits of last year's performers, and also the West Cork Literary Festival, which continues until July 2nd.

Seminars and workshops given by Morgan Llwellyn, Frank Delaney and Eoghan Harris support a programme of readings by Delaney, Llwellyn, Mary Kenny, Nell McCafferty, Sebastian Barry, Tom McCarthy, Donal Creedon, Leanne O'Sullivan and the Man Booker shortlisted David Mitchell.

The highlight of this festival will be Wednesday's launch of the 2005 Fish anthology of short stories and the presentation of an award to American writer Marc Philips, the winner of the €10,000 international short story competition. The second prize of a week at Anam Cara Writers' and Artists' Retreat was won by Jo Campbell of London, and Barry Troy of Dublin took third place.