Above all else, any performance by the Oakham Choral Society is the celebration of a living musical community – and what vigorous life it possesses under the stewardship of Alex Osiatynski.

An interesting choice, then, to celebrate on this occasion with a setting of the mass for the dead.

And yet, as much as Verdi's Requiem calls us to meditate on loss, it also serves to remind us of what is to be very much alive, such is the unqualified exuberance of so much of the music.

Indeed, the conductor is required to tread a very fine line.

Whilst too much Classical restraint threatens to shackle Verdi's Mediterranean lyricism, to indulge the latter is to transform the work into a succession of over-wrought Romantic gestures of the sort best left to Hollywood film composers.

The margin for error is very small. Osiatynski is to be congratulated first on finding the line, and then on guiding his charges along it for the duration of a wonderful concert.

On such a cold evening, the assembled forces might be forgiven a somewhat cold start, but once the soloists made their entrance, the performance gained a momentum that it subsequently never lost.

In a work in which the solo parts are so much to the fore, special mention must go to soprano Yvonne Howard, mezzo-soprano Susan Bickley, tenor John Graham-Hall and Bass Matthew Rose.

To entice singers of such standing to Oakham on a December evening is a triumph in itself, and in the wake of their superb performances it is to be hoped that they can be persuaded to return soon.

For this reviewer, the Agnus dei in particular, beautifully executed by the female soloists and so ably accompanied by chorus and orchestra, will linger long in the memory.

Reviewed by D.J. Sheppard