If you ask Tony Grybowski, the tour manager for the Tallis Scholars, which of Australia’s concert halls is acoustically best suited to the ensemble, he is unequivocal. He names the “jewel box design” of the Melbourne Recital Centre, with its beautiful plywood panelling, as providing the intimacy required for a chamber orchestra or a group of 10 voices — allowing each strand to be heard while blending seamlessly into a whole.

Peter Phillips (centre) with The Tallis Scholars. Photo supplied

The Tallis Scholars, founded almost 50 years ago by musical director Peter Phillips, is a polished ensemble well accustomed to working together so that no single voice dominates, yet each line is distinct.

An accomplished organist, Phillips has always been drawn towards the sacred — he prefers its subtlety and depth to the less complex madrigal — and he believes there is a purity in unaccompanied human voices that allows them to be more agile. For him, the best performances happen when every tiny detail of the work is respected.

The ethereal harmonies of Nicholas Gombert’s eight-part Credo open the program, lending...