Musica Sacra at Holy Trinity Cathedral

Whether it was quite the concert of the year that we were promised is a moot point, but the coming together of Musica Sacra and English organist John Scott did mean that few seats were empty in the sprawling spaces of the Holy Trinity Cathedral.

There were irritating delays in starting, but a sumptuous programme - complete with quirky background notes from Indra Hughes - made that delay pass pleasantly. When the music started, Hughes' languorously paced Zadok the Priest showed the choir at its considerable best.

Our first taste of the Donald Barriball Memorial Chamber Organ came when John Scott gave us a Byrd Fantasia, a chirruping delight bursting with bright, liquid colours.

With the full force of the choir and AK Barok alongside it, the gentle tones of the organ occasioned some deference. The celebratory Sinfonia of Bach's Wir danken dir, Gott seemed a little muted, with both timpani and trumpets particularly solicitous in the dynamics department. However, split notes are no less intrusive for being played pianissimo.

While Pepe Becker brought authority to her aria, Iain Tetley needed more tonal weight and Andrea Cochrane severely lacked vitality for a text that blazed with joy.

The centrepiece of the evening was Handel's G minor Organ Concerto. Scott's crisp articulation, keen sense of colour and piquant improvisation were appreciated - but acrid echoes in the strings were not.

It may have been a good idea to have Scott's hands projected on a video screen, but it was distracting when the image was flipped, and the organist's heaven-bound flights of fancy seemed to be spiralling in the other direction.

The Foundling Hospital Anthem is not prime quality Handel, with the most memorable choral scoring and singing to be heard in "The Charitable shall be had in everlasting remembrance". Towards the end of the work, Pepe Becker and Lisette Wesseling were remarkably affecting in their short duet.

As if the rousing Hallelujah Chorus, one of Handel's many borrowings in this anthem, wasn't enough, an encore followed. Bach's most famous Air, scrumptious on pizzicato strings and fluttering organ, proved the perfect parting bonbon.