Performer: Exultate Singers

This was, by no doubt, the largest ensemble on stage at Colston Hall this season with five choirs and an orchestra that took over the stage. 

The Exultate choir played alongside His Majesties Sagbutts for an evening of music from St. Mark’s Basilica in Venice, some of which hadn't been heard for over 400 years.

Choral concerts often have programmes that read like compilation CDs. I don’t mean this negatively: there are countless reasons why a greater number of contrasting pieces is required – timbral, textual, temporal, contextual, historical, and so on.

Contemporary religious music can seem to exist in a different world to the rest of contemporary music, and rarely since Messiaen was in his prime has there been much evidence of it as a really progressive wing of composition.

A celebration of London with a tube map as a programme. What better way to celebrate 2012 and the coming of the Olympics? From Thomas Tallis’ Spem in Alium to Lionel Bart’s ‘Who Will Buy?’ from Oliver!, the night’s performance was not short of variety. It was clear that the conductor David Ogden had put great effort into the programme, and it was certainly worthwhile.