St Bartholomew’s Church in candlelight has a marvellous atmosphere which complemented perfectly the programme of this late-evening concert.

The tall redbrick church, just off London Road, has a fine acoustic and the musical forces were carefully positioned and balanced by conductor Peter Farrant.

A small professional orchestra, the Surrey Pro Musica, was always audible but never overbearing; the Redhill And Reigate Choral Society, banked up behind the orchestra towards the High Altar, sang with a restrained sonority; and the soloists in the pulpit above the audience were also clearly audible.

Mozart’s Ave Verum opened the concert and was followed by a series of more modern songs – You Raise Me Up, No Wars Will Stop Us Singing, OK, and the Nigerian O Re Mi – performed by leading workplace choirs including two of Legal And General’s choirs from Hove and Kingswood, Surrey.

Choirs from the Children’s Trust in Tadworth, Surrey, and from East Surrey Hospital in Redhill complemented the Legal And General choirs in this diverse and uplifting series of songs that are both deeply spiritual and enjoyably popular at the same time – rather like Mozart’s evergreen Ave Verum.

Mozart’s Requiem, composed in the final weeks of his life and left unfinished, was over half of the concert’s length and was well sung by soloists Louise Alder (soprano), Maria Ostroukhova (contralto), Sussex’s own Nick Pritchard (tenor), Bradley Travis (bass), and the Redhill And Reigate Choral Society.