The Church has made a major contribution, as a significant employer of composers, to the development of classical repertoire. Brisbane Chamber Choir’s latest concert has a predominantly Baroque focus and a liturgically inspired program. Like any good program design, there are resonances between the three hefty programmed works which calls for stamina and sustained virtuosity. It is a big sing!

Michel Corrette, an innovative 18th-century French composer, had a fondness for reworking existing themes. In his search for suitable stimulus, he borrowed significantly and boldly from Vivaldi’s immensely popular Spring Violin Concerto from The Four Seasons in creating Laudanum Dominum, this program’s introductory item. Vivaldi’s familiar themes prevailed in the second movement in which the violin’s solos are assumed by soloists.

BCP’S musical support is admirably led by Alan Smith. The instrumental stretches are consistently rewarding and lifted by the Cathedral’s accommodating acoustic. West Australian soprano and early music specialist Bonnie de la Hunty’s expressive, silvery tone impresses. Her remarkable top notes pierce the robust instrumental and choral textures in this and throughout the concert, like a beaming shaft of light. Her authenticity, presence and musicality excel.

Immensely dedicated, the choir’s unity and enthusiasm enthral the audience. There are intermittent frayed edges,...