There is music you listen to because it’s nice while you’re doing the ironing, and there is music you listen to (bankers take note) in order to remind yourself that you still have a soul. Rachmaninov’s (All Night Vigil) Vespers Op.37 — or Vsenoshchnoye bdeniye, providing you have all your teeth — falls at the extreme end of the latter category, and Tenebrae’s rendition at Music at Oxford's first concert of the season was nigh-on perfect (not to say ‘on the money’).

Under the direction of Nigel Short (pictured), the Vespers moved at a sensible pace (it shouldn’t actually last all night), the choir utilising the cathedral’s acoustic without being tempted into indulgence. Even a smallish ensemble can still produce enormous volume when required, with the additional benefit, even amid Rachmaninov’s thick harmonies, of flexibility. Massed ranks, on the other hand, soon make every movement sound like The Hunt for Red October.

Neither were Tenebrae too bass-heavy, which makes a nice change from most Rachmaninov performances. There are four vocal parts for a reason, and it seems somewhat compensatory to have the bass section bellowing away like Vladivostok steel-workers. In all voices, chorus and solo (Joya Logan, Paul Badley and Adrian Peacock, in descending order), there was a ringing and equal clarity, which is appropriate to the psalmic narrative — even if no-one understands the Russian text.

The only musical glitch was the frequency of fresh starting notes: these shouldn’t be necessary, not even to preserve the basses from a (s)low death.

A couple of aesthetic quibbles, though. Any chorister will tell you that candles, while undoubtedly looking lovely, are a menace to sing with: but if you’re using them, use ’em. The miniature reading lamps Tenebrae had clipped to their copies looked as if they had been bulk bought in a petrol station. Ditto half-hearted attempts at faux-liturgical ‘movement’. Rachmaninov wasn’t much for religion, and the Vespers are a concert item, anyway. Both problems would be solved if the choir were simply out of sight, as they very often are in Russia.