O Sacrum Convivium – BREMF Community Choir, Andrew Robinson & Joe Paxton (conductors)

The Brighton Early Music Festival (BREMF) attracts a discerning audience that has come to expect novelty and the occasional academic curio. The pilgrim hymn from the 13th century Lewes Breviary, a miraculous survivor of the dissolution of the monasteries, certainly caught my attention. Fifty well-tuned voices sang it heartily and most likely with much more musicality than their medieval counterparts. This intelligently designed programme included French and German hymns from Compostela, some polyphonic motets and lute songs, showing the choir’s scope and versatility in the context of early music. My favourite was the motet ‘O Sacrum convivium’ by Thomas Tallis.

St Paul’s Church, 30 March 2017

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