Norwich Cathedral have been presenting an ambitious 9-day festival called Organ Reborn! which celebrates the recently completed refurb of the Cathedral Organ, which originally dates from 1899. As I've seen in many cathedral cities, there is a faithful local public who have a loyalty, often built up over decades, to these great instruments. On this broadcast from the BBC Singers' Festival concert, you can really sense the enthusiasm of the audience.
Although I think of myself as an evangelist for new organ music, I'm represented in this concert by a short vocal piece for upper voices and harp, titled We Sekyn Here Rest. I and composer colleagues, Hilary Campbell, Carol J Jones and Gemma McGregor, were invited over the last years by the organisation Multitude of Voyces to set short extracts from Revelations of Divine Love by Dame Julian of Norwich. This is said to be the earliest book by a named woman, written in the later 14th century. These are lovely performances by the BBC Singers conducted by Ashley Grote.
Not mentioned in the otherwise interesting Radio 3 commentary was a remarkable detail about these pieces. They were all written for a school choir (Godolphin School in Salisbury, directed by their brilliant conductor Olivia Sparkhall) and I can say of my own piece that the original premiere matched up well to this week's professional performance. It was also a neat bit of programming to bring the set of pieces back to Dame Julian's "home town".
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