ONE of the trump cards that this festival regularly plays is to juxtapose new works with much older music, putting them into a perspective they might not otherwise enjoy.

We do well to be reminded that many composers throughout history have been avant-garde in their own day.

The Micklegate Singers have always had this broad-minded attitude, so they fitted neatly into the festival's ethos last night. Under Nicholas Carter, these 40 voices are going from strength to strength. They framed their sacred programme with two Tudor giants, Tallis and Taverner. Two motets from the 1575 Cantiones Sacrae immediately showed Tallis - born 500 years ago - using false relations, deliberate "wrong" notes which sound briefly very modern.

Only a confident choir tackles the 17th-century Lotti's eight-voice Crucifixus, whose harmony swirls treacherously. The Micklegates handled it with ease. From there it is not such a long way to Knut Nystedt's O Crux of 1977, with its quarter-tone opening. It, too, resolved itself into something more conventional.

Herbert Howells' Requiem pre-dates his best work. It is nevertheless extremely moving, and the choir was well inside its loveliest moments.

Tucapsky's Five Lenten Motets hark back to an age not far removed from Dvorak. But they, and Tippetts's spirituals, at least introduced some livelier rhythms.

Updated: 11:00 Monday, March 14, 2005