Haydn’s Stabat Mater is an excellent choice for amateurs seeking to pay Sabbath homage on the 200th anniversary of the composer’s death.

Church settings of this hymn to the sufferings of the mother of Jesus have been dodged by many composers because of its emotional monotone.

Torfaen’s choristers understood how Haydn surmounted the problem with carefully chosen changes of tempo, solo colour and attack and minor-mode poignancy in the predominantly slow movements, where conductor Jeanette Massocchi avoided sluggishness.

In the five choruses, the choir soon found its stride, forceful enough in the pivotal O Mother, Fountain of Love to indicate how the tone of its address had changed.

For surprises, little could match bass Roger Langford’s Lest I be Set Afire, a scary judgment-day appeal at full tilt, coming after the solo quartet and full choir had reached a pinnacle with the strolling fugue of Chosen Virgin.

Despite some strain in the highest registers, the solo singing elsewhere was fresh and agreeable, counter-tenor Ben Barnes despatching a lovely Lachrymoso, soprano Lorraine Webb getting to grips with her final coloratura flourish and tenor Ignacio Viguera Paris opening placidly and remaining softly devotional in Let Me be Guarded by the Cross.

The anniversary theme began with the posthorn brightness of Ralph Tong’s E flat trumpet in the Haydn concerto of that key, choir and soloists opening with concentrated purpose in Mozart’s Regina Coeli, conducted by David Martyn Jones.

Solid support was given by organist Terence Gilmore-James and the St Woolos Chamber Orchestra in a concert patently the result of hard work at rehearsal.