Christ Church Cathedral is very lucky. Not only does it have an internationally renowned professional choir, it also has the Cathedral Singers. The Singers are a thriving local group who, since 1978, have sung the cathedral services when the main choir is on holiday, or away on tour. They eagerly grab opportunities to give concerts, too, the latest of them an all-baroque event featuring music by Vivaldi, Zelenka, and Handel.

Vivaldi’s Gloria RV 588 begins with a very catchy tune tossed about by oboes and trumpets. This doesn’t lead into an explosive choral entry, for this isn’t the Vivaldi Gloria RV 589 we all know and love, but its less famous brother. Here, soloists enter first, and that revealed a problem. Christ Church Cathedral has many virtues, but acting as a concert hall for a large audience isn’t one of them. The Singers, having no doubt tried many positions over the years to get the best sound for the most people, placed themselves, and their unnamed accompanying orchestra, in the central crossing, facing north. This meant that the soloists were invisible and largely inaudible from my position in the nave. Nonetheless director John Padley gave us nave-ists plenty of insights into a work that is perhaps less dramatic overall than its famous counterpart, but is still vintage Vivaldi — the lullaby-like Et in terra pax and Qui sedes were particularly memorable, as was the gutsy choral singing in Cum Sancto Spiritu.

There was excellent choral attack, too, in another rarity well worth airing, Zelenka’s exuberant Magnificat in D. Zelenka is reckoned to have been considerably influenced by Handel, so Handel’s four Coronation Anthems followed on naturally. The Singers delivered these splendid warhorses with evident glee, with the heavily outnumbered men working extra hard to make their presence felt. Praise, too, to the trumpeters and oboists (alas anonymous), who added greatly to this invigorating concert.