A big birthday demands a big occasion: Wadham College was founded 400 years ago this year, so in celebration it decided to sponsor a performance of its musical twin — Monteverdi’s Vespers of 1610. To guarantee the big occasion, Wadham, in partnership with Music at Oxford, decided to hire top talent: the Monteverdi Choir, the English Baroque Soloists, His Majesty’s Sagbutts and Cornetts, the London Oratory Junior Choir, and the Schola Cantorum of the Cardinal Vaughan Memorial School, all conducted by Sir John Eliot Gardiner (right).

Sir John Eliot founded the Monteverdi Choir in 1964 to perform the Vespers, and he has continued to explore the work ever since. And there’s plenty to explore: Monteverdi wanted his music performed, and being a shrewd businessman he mixed traditional plainchant with colourful operatic-style music, to please both traditional and progressive listeners, and left plenty of room for individual interpretation.

The huge resultant range of musical emotion, colour, and style was meticulously brought out in this performance, which was obviously the result of much thought and study. Yet the work sounded as fresh as a daisy, with never a dull moment in its two-hour, uninterrupted running time — Sir John Eliot and his forces stopped only for a quick retune before embarking on the final climactic Magnificat.

In a short review, it’s only possible to pick out one or two particularly memorable moments, but for me the sudden switches in colour and speed between Dixit Dominus and Nigra sum, and between Sonata sopra Sancta Maria — with its blaze of choral colour — and the prayerful hymn setting Ave maris stella, stand out, as does the stunning vocal skill displayed in Laetatus sum. The work’s echo effects were skilfully achieved by moving soloists out into the corridors.

“That was one of the most wonderful concerts we’ve ever had here,” a long-serving Sheldonian steward said to me afterwards. I wouldn’t disagree with that view for a second.