Passions. But OSJ conductor John Lubbock has a passion of his own — imaginative programme building. So instead of offering one single work, he presented appropriate music by no fewer than 14 different composers, ranging from Giovanni Francesco Anerio (born around 1567) to John Tavener (born 1944).

Two settings of the same words from different centuries were sometimes placed back to back. Anerio’s Christus Factus Est was paired with Bruckner’s richer setting from two centuries later, while Pablo Casals’s O vos omnes (a sombre romantic-style tour de force) was mirrored by Carlo Gesualdo’s 17th-century setting. Elsewhere Glinka’s The Cherubic Hymn, with its floating soprano line, was placed next to John IV of Portugal’s Crux Fidelis, written some 200 years earlier. Towards the end, Lubbock himself was the soloist in his own arrangement of Were you there when they crucified my Lord — a tellingly phrased performance delivered over a wordless choral accompaniment.

Naturally, given the occasion, much of the music was meditative and prayerful. But it was fascinating to hear how the different composers approached their texts, and the varying harmonies they employed to illuminate the words.

There was absolutely no feeling of monotonous similarity here, thanks to Lubbock’s expertly paced and deeply thoughtful direction, and the OSJ Ashmolean Voices’ singing.

This 19-voice choir has become a very im|essive, well-balanced group of singers in a short space of time. The high spot of this concert for me was their inspiring performance of John Tavener’s testing Syvati for Cello and Choir.

Tavener calls for a cello, representing the Priest or Ikon of Christ, to play at the back of the church: here the cellist was Alexander Rolton, who also contributed four beautifully liquid-toned Preludes from Bach’s Cello Suites.

This was altogether a memorable evening.