The origins of oratorio are a fascinating episode in the history of music. They lie in St Philip Neri’s progressive, modernising reaction to the Reformation, his followers recognised as the order of the Congregazione dell’Oratorio by Pope Gregory XIII in 1575. The brotherhood encouraged “spiritual exercise” in prayer and Bible study and embraced new ideas such as opera which, around 1600, grew out of a similar discussion group in Florence, devoted to secular matters such as the performance of classical drama.

In a programme entitled “The Birth of the Oratorio”, vocal sextet The Marian Consort performed examples of these early sacred dramas, sometimes known as dialogues (25 February). Like opera, they were accompanied, and an authentic small orchestra of theorbo, harp, viola da gamba and chamber organ sat before the altar, dividing the singers into groups of three who faced each other across the chancel of St Bartholomew, a handsome, Victorian, redbrick, High Anglican church in London’s Stamford Hill.