Bairstow: The Lamentation

This sequence of music for Lent, Passiontide and Easter represents a journey through perhaps the most dramatic part of the Church’s year. It is a season which has inspired many composers to write some of their most potent pieces, and contrasts the seriousness of intent and poignancy found in, say, Lotti’s Crucifixus with the exuberance of music such as Philips’s Ecce vicit Leo.

Other favourites in this anthology include Mendelssohn’s I waited for the Lord, Bruckner’s Christus factus est, and the beautiful Gibbons setting of Drop, drop, slow tears with the soloist Anthony Way (who caused such a stir in television’s The Choir). There are also two important new works, by John Sanders and Brian Chapple.

A celebration both of Easter and of exceptional singing.

The Glory of Ely Cathedral is a celebration of the musical life of one of the UK’s finest cathedrals. The CD features choral music by Stanford, Noble and Bairstow and organ music by Elgar, Bridge, Dupre and Glazunov.