28 March 2026: Duruflé "Requiem" and Music for Lent
Spring came early this year and, though March 28th was a little damp and chilly, the warmth of the music inside St Mary’s Church in Aylesbury was palpable. The setting was gorgeous, the music was sublime and the performance was skillful and a sheer delight – both from the choir’s point of view and the audience’s. One member of the audience commented on their love of live music and that ACS created a wonderful sound and atmosphere; and another made mention of the fact that the repertoire on this occasion was a “good mixture of modern and more traditional music with the main item an inspiring performance of” Duruflé’s Requiem. Yes, this magnificent piece of music, so often compared and paired unfairly with the Fauré, was at once beautiful, emotional, moving and so sensitively sung along with the amazing playing of Colin Spinks on the organ. Colin also played a solo item: the complex and inspiring Prelude and Fugue in b minor by, of course, the great J.S. Bach. This was so stunningly played and, in this day and age, it is a rare chance to hear good organ music played live outside of a church service. In addition to these pieces, ACS also performed Mozart’s beautiful Ave Verum Corpus, the Salvator Mundi by Thomas Tallis, Bob Chilcott’s God so loved the world and Philip Stopford’s own O Sacrum Convivium. Special mention must be made of the remaining two pieces: an extremely moving and touching performance of Dan Forrest’s new version of Charles Wesley’s great text of And can it be and the wonderful and soaring music of Allegri’s famous Miserere Mei together with its well-known top soprano Cs superbly performed by Helly Summerly. Altogether, a most delightful evening of music appropriate for the Lenten season.)
