Listening to this quite sublime concert you could not help wondering: How soft is soft.

This ensemble of 20-plus male voices, making their 21st tour of this country, presented a programme of a quality rarely heard anywhere. A first half of a cappella chants, sung in monks’ habit, chilled the spine with its reverence, golden tones and committment.

A candle-lit entrance to Kyrie Eleison set the standard for the evening. Admittedly they have the enormous advantage of Eastern European bass voices but to intone so softly and melodically as a choral accompaniment underneath soloists is quite extraordinary.

Their choral discipline is impeccable; their tone striking.

The second half, in which they donned Ukrainian traditional dress, was a homage to Verdi (on the bicentenary of his birth) with opera excerpts and traditional songs.

One soprano, bass, tenor and counter-tenor soloists added the gloss to a remarkable evening.