For a second year Bath Abbey Chamber Choir sang the ‘First evensong of the Patronal Festival’ of SS Peter and Paul, on a Saturday. (I missed last year’s service.) It’s a chance to push the boat out a bit, more for some in the choir than for others. I thought of what we’d chosen as within what I’d call standard repertoire, others felt they’d been stretched.
What we did was Howells’ Gloucester canticles and Ascribe unto the Lord by anniversary composer Wesley, along with the Ayleward Responses and Duruflé’s Tu es Petrus. It was good to see a substantial congregation, even though there were other special services on the Sunday for them to go to.
A Glastonbury-connected member of the choir commented that in the absence of the festival there this year ‘Get them (Howells and Wesley) on the Pyramid!’