The following weekend I was in singing a weekend of services at Wells Cathedral, with Priory Voices.
Much of the weekend’s music was Priory Voices standards, so I’ll just note the other pieces. For the second time in two weeks I was singing a Mozart Mass, this time the Spatzenmesse. We did a couple of early anthems appropriate to the season: Peter Philips’ Surgens Jesus and Taverner’s Dum transisset Sabbatum. Our canticles included Dyson in F, which I hadn’t sung for a while, and Sumsion’s Te Deum. Our slushier side was catered to by de Severac’s Tantum Ergo, which we performed by special request of the Cathedral clergy, who had enjoyed it on a previous visit.
We spent Saturday dodging those who were singing in a new oratorio ‘Alpha and Omega’ that evening in the Cathedral, but got sufficient rehearsal time in the stalls. Wells has the friendliest Cathedral cat ever, and it happily wandered in front of the choir during the singing of the Agnus Dei. It’s always nice to sing locally, if only because there is less time and expense involved in the weekend – Saturday supper can be collected from the ever-popular chippy at High Littleton on the way home. Priory Voices aren’t due to return to Wells for another three years though – let’s hope I get an invitation back before then.