Stile Antico, a vocal chamber ensemble already very well-known in the UK, delighted the audience with its twelve near-perfect voices in its Schleswig-Holstein debut at Rellingen Church. Anyone paying attention to the wider music scene has heard about them in Germany already. Stile Antico recently toured in Germany with the world-famous all-round musical talent and rock-star Sting who - for sure - grabs only the very best of musicians for his excursions into the Classical genre.

That this London-based choir is amongst the best was obvious in Rellingen at the Schleswig-Holstein Music Festival. The perfection of every soprano, tenor, alto and bass is clearly heard in the complexity of the mostly religious songs that were written from about 1509 to 1625 by poets and composers like Thomas Tallis and John Dowland, still famous in England today.

Stile Antico has no conductor or leader; they communicate with each other only through eye contact. And with every member of the choir highly concentrated and committed, it works perfectly. Each has a convincing solo voice, but together they are outstanding, interpreting music which has almost been forgotten in a thoroughly modern way. The audience in the packed Rellingen church responded to this thrilling performance with jubilant applause. Stile Antico ought to be a regular fixture in the churches and festivals of Schleswig-Holstein.