From Music Director Graeme Kay :I thought the choir, the programme, the director and the organists were absolutely superb.

My neighbour remarked to me, ‘They’re so young… some of them haven’t grown into their faces yet!’ They were indeed young, but there were mature, confident talents there (viz the step-out soloists) and the sound blend was exemplary.

Matthew had constructed the programme cleverly – after the low-key start of the John Sheppard piece, when the choir and organ erupted in the Howells, I had the first of many ‘tingles’ during the concert. The Imogen Holst piece was gentle and connected with local music-making, as did Britten’s Hymn to St Cecilia which, remarkably, they had only started rehearsing on Thursday after Matthew’s sabbatical term. As we know from Angelus ad Virginem, Matthew is a very talented composer; in his typically rhythmic and organ-led Laudate Dominum, it was great to hear the blink-or-you’ll-miss-it Zimbelstern at the very end.

The Haydn Mass was a revelation – compelling but also very entertaining. Harrison Cole’s organ accompaniment was superb. In this and the Bach Passacaglia Adrian and I again noted some very imaginative uses of the organ specification. We are so lucky to have the organ – it makes events like this possible.

The organists’ achievement is even more impressive because Harrison, Eben and Matthew set off at 930 to get here early to register and practice; but they suffered a flat tyre and had to travel later with the choir bus, arriving at 1230, so their practice time was very limited.

The acoustics in the chapel at Gonville & Caius are very dry – this makes for very accurate singing, but it’s unrewarding not to hear the blended sound ‘bloom’ – so the Choir were absolutely thrilled to bits with the opportunity to sing in our pellucid acoustics – they want to come back.

But the entire visit happened because Matthew had slipped into one of our Christmas rehearsals in 2022, and direct-messaged me on Facebook saying, ‘Great to hear your rehearsal. Could we talk about a visit?’ Social media does have some positive outcomes!