THIS concert began with Monteverdi’s sacred part song Beatus Vir, giving the choir and orchestra a chance to warm up along with tenor soloist Daniel Joy and baritone Colin Campbell.

Conductor Cathal Garvey set a bright tempo and if the choir took a little time to settle, it was a coldish night for June and voices needed to be exercised. He introduced Haydn’s Symphony No. 88 in G, making it clear that this was a favourite piece, one that he greatly admires. He coaxed brisk attack from the orchestra at a flying tempo on the opening movement and then slowed things right down with a slower than usual reading of the second, although this seemed to fit the mood of the music admirably.

The CGCO is an excellent non-professional orchestra and their playing was bright and lively all through this recital. The first half closed with the Mendelssohn composition Hear my Prayer, sung with assurance and a warm timbre by soprano soloist Claire Bessent, who comes from Inkpen via birth in Scotland. A bright and somewhat bubbly first half was replaced by the sombre but exquisite Mozart Requiem after the interval.

With the choir in top form and the orchestra responding to conductor Garvey’s richly atmospheric and dynamically charged reading, Bessent’s voice floating above at crucial moments, this was a performance to remember. Mozart may have only written half of it and Süssmayr the rest after his death but the work remains one of the great masterworks of music and NCS with CGCO reminded us with this concert.