Do you know when I like my sweetheart best?" That's an intriguing question, and it's asked in Zigeunerlieder, a group of Hungarian folk songs assembled by Hugo Conrat, and set by Brahms. Later we are told (with assertive piano accompaniment from the excellent Luke Bond) that "a sun-tanned lad leads his beautiful blue-eyed lass to the dance". The whole cycle shows Brahms letting his hair down, and it well suited the Cherwell Singers' light tone - although the men sounded a spot wary when they assured us: "A lad's allowed to visit his lass."

Since last September, the singers have been directed by James Brown (pictured) , who somehow manages to combine the post with the job of organist at the University Church, not to mention singing with New College Choir and Collegium Vocale, Ghent. He plainly invigorates the singers, and his conducting style radiates energy, as well as focusing tightly on the music.

The concert began with Five Mystical Songs by Vaughan Williams, and here Brown brought out the lilting, quintessentially English, nature of the music as he led the choir through the testing, quiet soprano entry in Love bade me welcome, and all the way to the final full-blast rendering of O let the world in every corner sing.

The English atmosphere was well captured, too, by baritone soloist Stephen Foulkes. While Foulkes does occasionally leave the odd word buried at the bottom of his throat, his voice is very pleasant to listen to, and he expertly phrases his overall musical line. His robust voice was well suited to the third work in the programme, Charles Villiers Stanford's setting of Sir Henry Newbolt's Songs of the Sea. Set for soloist and choir tenors and basses, these songs are tub-thumping stuff, but contrasting passages suggesting a darker melancholy, often to be found in Stanford's music, were also carefully brought out in this satisfyingly rounded performance.