The Sixteen's annual Choral Pilgrimage mostly takes them to cathedrals and churches that are the architectural equivalent of the polyphonic music the ensemble specialise in. So the brutalist style of Clifton Cathedral, a mere 41 years old, seemed a rather stark setting for the Tudor polyphony of Richard Davy, John Sheppard and William Mundy. Yet the collision of aesthetics was tempered by the sympathetic acoustics, and the concrete blocks seemed to find a counterpart in the essential simplicity of the plainchant – as fundamental to the structure of this music as the complex counterpoint.

The evening began with Sheppard's Gaude, Gaude, Gaude Maria, the balance elegantly calibrated – first between the clean lines of plainsong and the cumulative layering of vocal lines, and then between dulcet harmonies and acid dissonances. In the second of two Sheppard settings of In Manus Tuas, sung by male voices alone, it was again these dissonant moments that were spiking the sweetness that excited the ear.

Davy's O Domine Caeli Terraeque Creator, from the late 15th-century Eton Choirbook, is a prayer for grace addressed primarily to the Virgin Mary. A quality of grace in the trio of solo voices marked the heart of the work, before the gradual accumulation of glorious sound in the full choir. But the most gorgeous singing came last, with Vox Patris Caelestis by Mundy, who was judged by his contemporary Robert Dow as second only to William Byrd. The sensuousness of its words was matched by the sensual flow of the music and the vivid word painting, while conductor Harry Christophers's quickened pace added to the growing momentum. Mundy seemed not to want to end his elaborate Amen. This audience, likewise, would have been happy if it had gone on and on.

• 15 June. Box office: 01904 651485. Venue: Worth Abbey, West Sussex. Then touring.