Tewkesbury Abbey is dedicated to the Virgin Mary. The 15th August, is traditionally associated with the Feast of the Assumption, for which the music presented on this recording is selected.
Feast days in the Abbey’s liturgical calendar are typically celebrated by two major services: a Eucharist and Solemn Evensong, and this recording includes the major musical items for both of these services. Jonathan Dove’s virtuosic setting of the Missa Brevis is the centrepiece of the morning Eucharist, together with a rare recording of Dupré’s Ave Maria for treble voices, and Poulenc’s hymn of praise to the Virgin, Salve Regina.
Evensong gives us all the main musical parts of the service, with introit, responses, psalm, canticles, anthem, and - befitting a celebration on a Feast Day - a setting of Te Deum. It features the first recording of Emmanuel by Philip Moore - with includes an extensive part for a distant semichorus – here sung by the girls of Dean Close School Chamber Choir.
The evening is brought to a triumphant close with organist, Carleton Etherington, giving a glittering performance of Flor Peeters’ major solo organ work Toccata, Fugue et Hymne sur Ave Maris Stella.
