THE audience heading for Malvern’s Forum Theatre for Supersize Polyphony are in for a musical experience that is like no other.

They will be faced by a 360 degree project in which they will be surrounded by sound in one of the most ambitious and innovative projects undertaken to date by leading professional choir Armonico Consort.

It will perform Tallis’ Spem in Alium and Striggio’s 60-part Mass in complete ‘surround sound’ – with the audience encircled by the choir and the eight-date UK tour brings them to Malvern Theatres on Thursday, July 5 (7.30pm).

The celebration of large-scale choral works from the 16th century is a collaboration with the 26-strong Choir of Gonville and Caius College Chapel, Cambridge.

The epic motets are interspersed with ethereal chants by Hildegard of Bingen and other works from the period for an evening of choral magnitude and polyphonic drama.

Thomas Tallis’ Spem in Alium is widely considered to be the greatest piece of music of the English Renaissance. Written for 40 individual voices arranged in eight groups of five singers, it starts with a single voice before others join in and vocal ‘conversations’ fly across the space.

Armonico Consort’s Artistic Director, Christopher Monks says, they will be performing the choral work in the way Tallis intended, in glorious surround sound.

He said: “It was designed to be daring – for both listeners and performers – and the major challenge for the conductor and singers in performing it in this way is the time lag and reverberation especially in the larger venues.

“Supersize Polyphony is our flagship programme which earned us five stars from The Times and we’re delighted to be joined by the Choir of Gonville and Caius College to tour this work across the country and to add substantially to the concert experience by sharing our love of this music through the many associated events.”