★★★★★ A spiritually profound, sensuously crafted performance from the Rolls-Royce of choirs.

Melbourne Recital Centre
July 19, 2016

At the first Melbourne performance of its national tour, there was a moment during the Choir of Trinity College Cambridge’s performance of the Kyrie from Frank Martin’s wonderful but often neglected Mass for Double Choir, that seemed to perfectly capture the audience’s experience. After a sudden tutti attack, that smashed through the weightless, drifting serenity of the preceding texture like a golden sledgehammer, a man sitting directly behind me let out an involuntary and quite audible moan. I could hardly blame him; despite being an entirely sacred programme, music making as sensuous and intoxicating as this feels almost sinfully indulgent. 

Anyone unfamiliar with this extraordinary ensemble could perhaps be forgiven for assuming a university group would merely be a bunch of budding enthusiasts, enjoying a singalong in between lectures. Appearances can be deceiving. It may be made up of young Oxbridge undergrads (the typical age of the singers in its ranks is under 21), but Trinity College Cambridge is truly the Rolls-Royce of choirs. Its members are cherry picked by director Stephen Layton from a fiercely competitive...