For this concert for Palm Sunday, the Swansea Bach Choir did not actually sing any of the work of the composer after whom they are named, though Johann Sebastian never felt far away.

By way of tribute to the young Mendelssohn, without whose championing the cult of Bach might never have developed, the choir sang two of his chorale cantatas written in the style of Bach. In Jesu, meine Freude and the Passion chorale O Haupt voll Blut und Wunden, the choir delivered the simple lines in a wonderfully restrained, even tone. Only the supporting strings' elaborate passagework betrayed the precocious hand of the composer of the Octet.

This programme also featured two settings of the Easter sequence Stabat Mater: one early 18th-century Italian and the other late 19th-century German. The contrast was vivid. Pergolesi's Stabat Mater was probably the last work written before he died of TB at 26, and suggests a genius for plangent melody, expressive chromatic harmony and lively rhythm.

Small wonder that Bach used the music wholesale for his motet setting of the 51st Psalm and that, two centuries later, Stravinsky made free with more Pergolesi for his Pulcinella. Its beauty was affectingly realised in the alternating solos and duets of soprano Cecilia Osmond and mezzo Stephanie Marshall, but the Chamber Orchestra of Wales's accompaniment also underlined Pergolesi's embracing of the new galant style.

Josef Rheinberger's choral Stabat Mater is cast in an altogether more lilting Romantic vein. Its four movements demonstrate the efficient disposition of harmonic and contrapuntal writing that Rheinberger - a respected teacher - encouraged his pupils to master. The Swansea Choir, always sensitive to the highly musical and intelligent interpretations of their director John Hugh Thomas, came into its own here. Their sound was rich, the words clear and the drama of the crucifixion scene subtly reflected.