Rubbra Magnificat & Nunc Dimittis

Opus 65 for Choir & organ  the Magnificat and Nunc dimittis in A flat major was written for the Anglican rite. The two Evensong canticles composed in 1948 are remarkably bold and original compared with the rather more polite versions offered by late Victorian and Edwardian writers.

For Rubbra spirituality was the starting point for his work, an inexhaustible wellspring from which flowed not only choral and vocal music but also much of his instrumental and orchestral writing. His reception into the Roman Catholic Church in 1948 was to prove the inevitable point of rest for a man who had begun his spiritual journey many years earlier.

Finzi Lo the Full Final Sacrifice

A festival anthem for SATB choir and organ, this work was composed in 1946. The work was commissioned by the Revd Walter Hussey for the 53rd anniversary of the consecration of St Matthew's, Northampton and subsequently orchestrated by Finzi for its performance at the Three Choirs Festival in 1947. Since then it has become a staple of the Anglican choral tradition.