The title of the performance (cf. Hebrews 12.1) encapsulated all that was included in this magnetic recital. Anthems and hymns inspired by the lives of the saints being interspersed with poetry reflecting the same theme.
The fantastic working relationship between John Kitchen and Calum Robertson was self-evident here, as they interchanged the roles between conducting and playing with ease and naturality. Like the first piece ‘O Quam’, Bullock’s ‘Give us the wings’ was not only majestic but also transportative, in lifting us effortlessly to heavenly heights.
Wrenn’s metrical poem, ‘A Cloud of Witnesses’ continued to hold us in that expectant pause between the earthly and other-worldly. The subsequent Bach chorus felt like this ‘cloud’ was drawing us upward into that worship and existence found on a totally different plane. The work in its entirety was fairly long, and the concentration expended on its complexity over such an elongated period was a marvel to behold.
Guite’s ‘Sonnet for the Ascension’ was archetypal of how the items of poetry had been so carefully chosen – retaining the spirit of the performance, but offering some space and a place for quieter reflection. The reading of Thomas’s ‘The Country Clergy’ was similarly movingly and meaningfully delivered.
Leighton’s ‘Sequence for All the Saints’ contained contrasting but complimentary components. There was something disarming about the simplicity of the Offertory versus the elongated and developed Gradual. The Communion section drew together, in a thoughtful way, the idea of All Saints and All Souls being one commemoration – a peaceful pause before the blossoming joy of the Finale.
We all had the opportunity to join in with ‘Give me the wings of faith to rise’, before MacNiece’s ‘Fanfare for the Makers’; John Kitchen’s following work, ‘Anthem to St Paul’ very much had a hymn like quality, though with the refrain of ‘Damascus Road’ occurring at varying points. This was typical of something thoughtful and considered about the structure of this recital – we not only meditated on the saints in general, but on the panoply of people, in all their individuality and difference, that together form the content of the ‘cloud’: the example of Mary in the poem ‘O Sapientia’ and the entirely different witness of St Columba in Steven’s poem of the same name, and the evocative ‘Hymn to St Cecilia’ which came at the recital’s conclusion.
The recital finished at 9.20pm.
So Great a Cloud of Witnesses, Friday 15th August 2025, Old St Paul’s