Director: James Henderson
Organ: Charlie Gurnham
Matthew O’Donovan: Kyrie (Missa Brevis)
Edward Bairstow: Blessed City
Edward Bairstow: I sat down
Matthew O’Donovan: Gloria (Missa Brevis)
Herbert Howells: Organ – Allegro Scherzando, no. 2
Edward Elgar: Give unto the Lord
William Harris: Faire is the heaven
(Interval)
Matthew Martin: Laudate Dominum
Matthew O’Donovan: Sanctus and Benedictus (Missa Brevis)
Edward Naylor Vox dicentis: Clama
Judith Bingham: Organ – St. Bride, assisted by angels
Matthew O’Donovan: Kyrie (Agnus dei)
Charles Hubert H. Parry: Hear my words.
The Abbey Choir’s annual concert this year is structured around the setting of the Mass by Matthew O’Donovan – a composer living and working in Eton. Recorded by the Abbey Choir in 2023, the Missa Brevis contains both contemporary harmonic language and musical idioms associated with French music of the first half of the 20th century. Between movements there is music by Judith Bingham, who received an OBE in 2020, Matthew Martin – a composer living and working in Cambridge, and Herbert Howells. Choral music by Parry, Elgar and Harris is well represented by repertory that appears on many an album of choral music favourites, while Naylor’s Vox dicentis: Clama is an extended work in four distinct sections, with choral textures frequently dividing into lush eight-part writing that works spectacularly well in the wonderful acoustic of the Abbey.
