York Minster must – in the words of our conductor – have known that I was coming with Priory Voices, as they laid on lots of psalms. In addition to the full whack for the 27th evening, we got all of Ps.107 (the first time I think I’ve sung this psalm in its entirety). We were also invited to do what the Minster’s own choir does at the end of the Eucharist: sing Ps. 150 in procession.
An occupational hazard of singing at York: Bairstow. We sang his setting for Ps. 107 and also Blessed City, heavenly Salem, which I have only sung twice before. What stuck in my memory about previous performances is the difficulty of the entry at ‘Many a blow and biting sculpture’. This is on an upbeat during an accelerando and I once sang in a performance where the entire choir (which included much better musicians than me) unanimously failed to come in at that point. (That didn’t happen this time).
The rest of the music was familiar from earlier weekends with this choir: Vierne’s Messe Solennelle, Howells’ Gloucester Service and so on, the only other novelty being Byrd’s Miserere Mei in a high key which put me onto a different line from usual.