The Choir of King’s College Cambridge presented a programme of music spanning 450 years, holding a capacity audience at The Sage Gateshead captivated throughout. More familiar to sacred settings, the choir proved equally at home in the secular surrounds of Hall One; the finely-honed acoustic laying bare the polyphonic glory of the music. The evening opened with Allegri's Miserere mei Deus, a work famously notated from memory by the 14-year-old Mozart on a visit to the Vatican. Sung with lines of purity, the layering of the adults’ and boys’ voices was brilliant. And the soaring high Cs were delivered with unfaltering confidence. The swirling textures of the Agnus Dei from Paletrina’s Missa Papae Marcelli were almost hypnotic in their heavenly effect. Tallis’ fiendishly difficulty Lamentations of Jeremiah and Byrd’s Laudibus in santis rounded off the early music. While the choir may be rooted in traditions stretching back to 1500’s, its music director Stephen Cleobury is keen that it remains a relevant music force and champions contemporary composers. Newcastle-born composer and saxophonist John Harle took the helm in his City Solstice: a song for London Bridge. The ingenious work interweaves traditional London folksongs, with a haunting take on London Bridge is Falling Down. Alto David Allsopp sang the underlying narrative with piercing clarity. One passage has the high note of a treble merging seamlessly with the lament of the alto saxaphone. The choir also performed a group of four carols commissioned by King’s College from composers Rautavaara, Woolrich, Turnage and Weir. The programme ended with Tippett's Five Spirituals from a Child of Our Time. As an encore the choir gave a rollicking rendition of on Brian Wilson’s I Get Around. All round an inspiring experience.

Gavin Engelbrecht