The main point of interest at Burford Singers’ summer concert was the UK premiere of The Mission Chorales by former Beatles producer Sir George Martin. The seeds for this ten-minute work were sown back in the 1980s when Sir George wrote a series of sketches for a proposed film score for The Mission, starring Jeremy Irons. The piece begins with angry chanting from the natives of an Amazonian rainforest when they see the approach of a party of Jesuit priests. The priests have come to convert the natives to Christianity, and respond by singing in praise of God.

In the hands of Burford Singers and their conductor Brian Kay, this was a delightful miniature. The opening chant, accompanied by some well-placed foot-stamping, made for an exciting start, and was quickly followed by a declamatory ‘Hosanna’ and some sublime settings of the ‘Kyrie’, ‘Ave Maria’, ‘Agnus Dei’, ‘Benedicat’ and ‘Domine Deus’. These were interspersed with equally sublime orchestral passages, in which the oboe - beautifully played by Carolyn King - was very much to the fore. Singers and orchestra were clearly relishing both the music and the occasion, and under Brian Kay’s decisive baton gave a thoughtful and committed performance. Happily, the composer was in the audience to take his share of the applause.

Also in the programme was the Mass in C by a teenage Schubert, and imbued with all the melodic and rhythmic interest that are so much a feature of his later works. The four soloists - Ruth Jenkins (soprano), Stephanie Lewis (mezzo), Jeremy Budd (tenor) and Stephen Connolly (bass) - were uniformly excellent; no weak links here. The final piece trod a more familiar path - Vivaldi’s evergreen Gloria, with that distinctive opening, was strongly delivered, and again there were some lovely contributions from Ruth Jenkins and Stephanie Lewis, whose voices blended beautifully in ‘Laudamus Te’, while ’Quoniam tu solus sanctus’ and ’Cum Sancto Spiritu’ formed a magnificent finale.