Despite its close association with jazz, the saxophone made its debut in a choral work by Berlioz, thematically linking the instrument to the music of Christian Forshaw's ensemble Sanctuary which performed at the University Church on Friday. Although Forshaw has a wide repertoire as a soloist, including Richard Rodney Bennett's suite for alto saxophone, for his own ensemble he has perfected a supremely refined tone that makes the instrument sound quite different from the instrument heard in that devil's music' of jazz.

Sanctuary consists, alongside Forshaw (pictured), of solo soprano voice, four more soprano singers, percussion and organ. This odd combination is heavily biased towards the top registers, particularly as Forshaw utilises the carrying qualities of the upper registers of both soprano and alto saxophone to cut above the vocal lines. So the only relief from this angelic sound comes from the dense chords of the church organ and the percussion. In many of the pieces, such as Hereford, Not So bad and Mortal Flesh, the greatest attraction came from the singing of soloist Grace Davidson over swelling chords with unusual dissonances from the organ. In these pieces, Forshaw's solos with endless high sustained notes seemed to be more of an embellishment or an adjunct to the main business, and as the evening progressed there was a longing for him to break away. But apart from a brief solo of pieces by Rameau, he never did.

Once back with the ensemble, he retreated to those sustained notes that in the end seemed to add little to the soprano voices. Forshaw's specially commissioned piece, Anointed, had moments of sombre intensity but still lacked an edge of the unexpected.

Much of this music was an example of how tension and beauty is only achieved by appearing to force order out of chaos. But if there is no glimpse of chaos then the order has no effect and can devolve into sugar. Although the playing was faultless and the arrangements attractive, the music lacked that spark of disorder. Perhaps Forshaw needs occasionally to open his door just a crack to the devil.