A WHOLE programme of lullabies might sound soporific, but VOCES8 – three ladies, five gentlemen, unaccompanied – were much too subtle for that. They ranged widely between the 14th and the 21st centuries, in an engaging variety of styles.

Their opening numbers were supremely controlled, compelling attention with very soft textures. Michael Praetorius’s rose emerged spotless indeed, tenderly simple. A similar approach in the off-stage semi-chorus of Britten’s A Hymn To The Virgin established the essential contrast with the lustier on-stage quartet. In the group’s own idiomatic setting, there was a good swing to Angelus Ad Virginem, the 14th century French carol.

Philip Stopford’s Ave Maris Stella (2015), light and airy, was paired with Byrd’s delectable five-voice Lulla, Lullaby, which was succulently phrased. A return to Germany with Schütz and Hieronymus Praetorius (no relation of Michael above) introduced some rampaging, excitable shepherds and the latter composer’s angels replying with extravagant Alleluias.

Another modern pairing brought Francis Pott’s pleasingly prayerful Balulalow alongside Jonathan Dove’s King’s College, Cambridge commission of 2000, a gently rocking, canonic setting of Dorothy L Sayers’ poem, The Three Kings. Mendelssohn’s Elijah was briefly, if unexpectedly, recalled before Byrd’s Vigilate, done with excitingly crisp cross-rhythms.

Germany had the last word. Scheidt’s antiphonal Puer Natus led into Hieronymus’s superb Second Magnificat on the fifth tone, with two carols interwoven. Here the tone was unashamedly heart-on-sleeve. Let it Snow! made an hilarious encore.