The Chandos Singers broke some new ground with their latest poster, showing a couple of flagellants. The concert was built around two Masses by Adam Michna: his Lenten Mass and Requiem. The former of these is built on a repeating eight-bar bass line, basically in F major with an E flat thrown in for some tonal variety. By the time this E flat had trundled past over thirty times, it had lost something of its novelty, but the movements of the Mass were broken up by other pieces for variety.
For a change we made an excursion into the world of British cathedral-type repertoire. I had never come across Vaughan Williams’ O vos omnes which dates from around the time of his Mass and contains many echoes of passages in it. Nor did I know Leighton’s Quam dilecta, a lengthy anthem with an extended soprano solo (divided between three of us), which reminded me in particular of his second set of Evening Canticles. There is enough Leighton for me to keep on discovering new works by him for some time.
Other pieces included Victoria’s Salve Regina for double choir and two of Poulenc’s Lenten motets. We finished with a composer I’d never come across: Bernhard Lewkovitch’s Exsultate Domino, a jolly setting which changes key signature frequently. Once I’d worked out that the 8/4 bars contained three beats and not four I was all right.