St Michael’s Choir, Philip Adams (director)

This was a very satisfying programme. The anthems by Gibbons, Byrd and Tallis just seemed to belong in the neo-Gothic St Michael’s. The choir excelled in Britten’s ‘Missa Brevis’ and then some more in Michael Finnissy’s ‘Oure Father’ (sic), Professor Finnissy himself accompanying it on a small chamber organ.

In the first performance of his ‘Fourth Magnificat and Nunc Dimittis’, the extra ‘voice’ of a cello, played with brio by Esther Ward-Caddle, lifted the music to an even higher plane. The mysterious Syrian doxology at the end was particularly atmospheric. This work celebrates the 150th anniversary of the church’s dedication.

St Michael’s Church, 13 May 2012

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