Artistic Director of the Brighton Festival for 25 years and trumpeter-in-residence at St Bart’s for 50, Professor Gavin Henderson CBE has always had plenty to blow his own trumpet about and last night gathered many distinguished friends and performers for a sort of musical This is Your Life. Actually, it was a rather well-chosen programme of popular works by that great friend to trumpeters, Henry Purcell.

Opening the concert, the sombre Funeral Music For Queen Mary, written with procession in mind, worked well with the Henderson Brass Consort at one end of the vast church, the excellent BREMF Singers at the other.

As the programme gathered pace, however, and the various spirited musical forces moved closer together, the more upbeat and intricate pieces were swallowed whole by St Bart’s whale of an acoustic, turning things rather into a fanfare at a swimming gala.

In their unaccompanied moments, the choir’s sensitive unity proved a welcome anchor, while Emma Kirkby, one of early music’s greatest communicators, worked her intimate magic in songs from King Arthur and The Fairy Queen.