PROGRAMMING three popular 18th-century religious works brought a large, expectant audience to the University of York’s concert hall. An in-form choir, singing some of the best music of its age, made for an enjoyable and uplifting evening.

Vivaldi’s well-known Gloria opened reassuringly upbeat and crisply articulated, moving to a plaintive Et In Terra Pax. Sopranos Bethany Seymour and Nancy Cole combined pleasingly at Laudamus Te; dotted rhythms were kept taut at Domine Deus, Rex Caelestis. Vivaldi’s final Cum Sancto Spiritu was restrained and sober.

Haydn’s Nelson Mass was even finer: after an arresting opening Kyrie, and a characterful Gloria, the Qui Tollis section was strongly led by Frederick Long’s firm, deep bass voice. Rather than pleading for peace, the final Dona Nobis Pacem danced, as if in gleeful anticipation of peace already assured—a remarkable response by Haydn to his formal title, Missa In Angustiis (Mass In Troubled Times).

Placing the 22-year-old Handel’s Dixit Dominus between these mature works emphasised its composer’s relative inexperience: its unforgiving choral demands appeared almost headstrong. The sopranos sustained their exposed high notes with admirable bravery. Nancy Cole’s unforced silky mezzo tone blended beautifully with Rachel Gray’s clear cello solo in Virgam Virtutis.

The Yorkshire Baroque Soloists, containing some of York’s most illustrious and versatile musicians, can be relied on to go beyond sheer proficiency. When they perform with the Yorkshire Bach Choir they often seem cast as support, yet, as on this occasion, they add indispensable impetus and panache under Peter Seymour’s habitually clear, insightful conducting.