IN the welter of new music and new interpretations that made London this week the epicentre of musical activity, Roxanna Panufnik's Westminster Mass, which received its first performance on Thursday, was a jewel.
Quite simply, set alongside Robert Lepage's extended Mahlerian ruminations in Kindertotenlieder and the monstrous pretensions of Robert Wilson and Philip Glass's Monsters of Grace, Panufnik's exquisite Mass setting - a relative model of clarity, and written from the heart - was the best music on offer in London.
The Westminster Mass was commissioned to celebrate the 75th birthday of Cardinal Basil Hume, who was the principal celebrant in the Ascension Day Mass during which Panufnik's new composition was performed by the glorious Westminster Cathedral Choir and the City of London Sinfonia.
Obviously, in the context of the solemn Mass for which it was written, with its seven sections separated by and scattered through a lengthy liturgy, the new music had little cumulative impact.
But, at its rehearsals and run through in the afternoon, conducted by the cathedral's master of music, James O'Donnell, it was clear that the piece is an absolute entity, and, as a musical composition, stands on its own, coherent and convincing.
And it is a beautiful composition, sensitively orchestrated for strings, harps, and tubular bells. Its ethos is romantic but never over-the-top, sweet but unsentimental, and characterised by rich, gentle harmonies and a devotional, quietly fervent sense of atmosphere. It also has a number of melodic hooks (principally in the Kyrie, Gloria, and an undulating motif in the Agnus Dei) that are instantly memorable.
This, like the best of its type, is a Mass that will travel and be taken up - for purely musical performance - by a range of choirs and chamber orchestras. It's ravishing.
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereComments are closed on this article