One of the most important early composers of opera buffa (comic opera), Pergolesi died at the age of 26 but not before he had composed much sacred music.

The Miserere in C Minor is attributed to Pergolesi – though he is credited with many more compositions than would be possible in such a short life - and his Stabat Mater, an instant success when delivered in 1736, were most competently delivered with Matthew Reeve (counter tenor), George Pooley (tenor) and Reuben Thomas (bass) starring in the pizzicato backed trio item in Miserere. Matthew Reeve joined Anna Sandstrom (soprano) to produce a lovely sound in the Stabat Mater.

Anna is a recent guest of the Consort, a product of Newcastle Conservatory in Australia, where she specialised in 17th and 18th century vocal music. Anna built a fine reputation with her performances with Australian Baroque Brass. She is currently auditioning in London.

The very small orchestra was underweight for this performance, and the violins sounded decidedly scratchy. I remember Jamie Walton (cello) at last year's Warwick International Festival finding difficulty with the lack of warmth affecting the instrument tone.

Maybe the temperature had something to do with it but more likely it was the lack of instrumentalists.

Albinoni was a prolific composer of operas and instrumental music and manager of an academy of singing. Most of his operatic works have been lost and so, too, many of his instrumental pieces during the bombing of Dresden.

However, in 1945 an Italian musicologist discovered a fragment of manuscript and reconstructed the now famous Adagio, a piece which ironically Albinoni would hardly recognise.

Organ and strings delivered a very pleasing, if somewhat compact, rendition of this piece and the evening was completed with his Magnificat in G minor.Clive Peacock