This annual tour de force takes some of the finest musical talent from Cambridge and beyond, hires out King’s College Chapel and lets the applause roll in. This year’s piece of choice was Elgar’s The Dream of Gerontius, which traces the journey of an ordinary man’s soul from death to purgatory and judgement.

Sitting somewhere between requiem mass and opera, the music of this piece is made epic with flashes of hellfire and brimstone, but also rather dreamy, with plenty of luscious melodies still redolent of a halcyon pre-war English Romanticism.This meandering work features moments of terror and poignancy and a texture of molten chocolate – or perhaps lava.

The English choral tradition was out in full force here – a kind of super-choir featuring Clare, Caius, Jesus, Selwyn and Trinity – which could do both ‘demons’ and ‘angelicals’ with equal panache. Under the graceful baton of Sir Richard Armstrong, whose conducting style verged on the balletic, the chorus displayed a hugely expressive range, with diction which managed to cut across the formidable orchestra.

CUMS I augmented by players from CUCO hammed up the score with some indulgent playing: a few particularly electrifying moments were provided by unrestrained percussion. Though the orchestra was occasionally at risk of overpowering the soloists in the massive acoustic of King’s ante-chapel, Louise Poole (scarlet-clad as the Angel), Peter Wedd (Gerontius, with a ghostly pallor to match) and Darren Jeffery (as Priest and Angel of the Agony) were not to be drowned out. All three gave moving vocal performances, working with what is arguably a rather awkward text (one adapted from John Newman).

The challenge of this work seems to lie in sustaining musical interest over ninety minutes of meditation on Catholicism – a feat which the huge ensemble managed with very few lapses in cohesion. Unlike the piece’s disastrous premiere, this was a beautiful performance with some outstanding individual moments.