“Jeffrey Skidmore assembled a wonderful programme of works which all led unerringly to [Bruckner’s] great Mass in E minor, for which his chamber choir was joined by expert wind and brass players of the CBSO. This was a distinguished event … recorded by the BBC for future broadcast on Radio 3…

“And so we arrived at the Mass, the counterpoint of Palestrina meeting the harmonies of Wagner, and the hairs on the back of the neck rising. Ex Cathedra and CBSO combined under Skidmore’s understated direction to deliver an account which both melted and pierced at the same time, lines overlapping and interweaving…

“Skidmore shaped well the rising ecstasy of the Sanctus and Benedictus, moving through the oboe filigrees accompanying the Benedictus, through to the exhausted serenity of the Agnus Dei.

“Bruckner’s E minor Mass is a work more or less ideal in its conception and construction, and its delivery here did it total justice.”

Read in full at www.midlandsmusicreviews.co.uk