The bonds of friendship entwine our programme. Gerald Finzi’s beautiful and intimate Requiem da Camera was written in memory of his esteemed teacher Ernest Farrar, killed in the final days of the First World War, and Farrar’s moving and lyrical partsong Margaritae Sorori which follows is a fitting valediction. 

Howells wrote his turbulent An English Mass, a work full of agony and ecstasy, for Harold Darke (organist of St Michael’s, Cornhill 1916-1966) and his St Michael’s Singers. Chilcott’s passionate ‘My prayer’ and Nino Rota’s characterful Sonata per orchestra da camera, at turns elegiac, heroic, pastoral and spritely, complete our programme.