CATHEDRAL organist Adrian Lucas, directing Worcester Cathedral Choir, guided us through seasonal music of the past thousand years or so, while also traversing the globe.

There were interesting contrasts, as in two versions of There is no rose, first in an anonymous English version sung by six lay clerks, arranged in two groups responding to each other; the second, a contemporary composition of close harmony, by Sebastian Forbes.

Wesley's The Wilderness employed a variety of writing for quartets of singers, soloists and the full choir. A florid organ section added stature to Your God, He will come and save you, and the closing And sorrow and sighing shall flee away was given a poignant emphasis.

Daniel Phillips (assistant cathedral organist) played solos, including Bach's chorale prelude Wachet auf valiantly, in spite of the organ's inadequacies and noisy mechanics. Also, he conducted the choir in a group of finely intonated carols, with some very musicianly achieved dynamics.

Ben Parry's setting of John Betjeman's poem And is it true? was written in close chromatic harmony, a near relative of barber-shop style; Just another star by Peter Gritton was in modern pop idiom, and much enjoyed!

Familiar carols were included too, for everyone to participate in the festive music.

The club continues on Sunday, January 20 at 3pm with a piano recital by Charles Owen.

Jill Hopkins