“This performance of Bach’s mighty B Minor Mass by Ex Cathedra and the Ex Cathedra Baroque Orchestra was quite simply magnificent. Never has such an intense two-and-something hours sped-by so utterly engrossingly.

“Their usual conductor, Jeffery Skidmore – the esteemed founder of Ex Cathedra – was indisposed, so Steven Devine stepped in. Steven was originally booked as the organist, so he swapped the keyboard for the podium…

“Conductor, Steven Devine, shaped the music with tremendous attention to detail, and all of the detail came across. Nothing was lost. The choir sang with total commitment and concentration that was utterly engrossing. Likewise, the band were superb, and there were some wonderful obligato solos from flutes, oboes, bassoon, lead violin, and others…”

Read the rest of the 5* review at www.reviewsgate.com

“… The concert drew on repertoire explored by this now well-established choir during the first twenty years of its life. It was a nicely balanced programme which, like a well-stuffed Christmas stocking (if it’s not too early for such analogies) just kept yielding its delights…

“Although Ex Cathedra has been around for a long time, the choir’s commitment to encouraging new talent means it is always being infused with fresh young voices. The list of singers for the concert indicated at least eleven musicians in receipt of scholarships. The mix of younger and more experience voices resulted in a tone that was both bright and full-bodied. Blending within each section was quite flawless. And balance within the choir as a whole, excellent.

“This enabled the conductor to shape the music with tremendous attention to detail, and all of the detail came across. Nothing was lost. This was particularly noticeable during John Joubert’s Three Portraits. These are densely composed, harmonically rich and imaginative pieces. The choir sang them with a degree of commitment and concentration that was utterly engrossing.

“Choosing other highlights is difficult. All of the items on offer added something special and all were delivered with love and care.”

Read the full 5* review at www.reviewsgate.com

“One of the joys of Ex Cathedra’s approach to music making is that they often approach things in an unexpected way. It was, therefore, typical of them that a concert celebrating the 200th anniversary of the birth of Anton Bruckner did not comprise entirely of his music. Instead, they gave us a glorious selection from his vocal output, but contextualised it with the music of other composers.

“Thus, after an organ improvisation, the choir rose to sing two movements from Palestrina’s Missa sine nomine. But in a case of authenticity eating itself, this was a historically informed interpretation of how it might have been heard, and perhaps performed, by Bruckner – accompanied by organ with German Latin pronunciation and a robustness of tone to which audiences are no longer accustomed when hearing renaissance music…

“Similarly, Allegri’s Miserere mei was presented as a familiar object seen from an unfamiliar angle in an edition by Ben Bryam-Wigfield that draws variously on the original Allegri, highly ornamented 18th Century versions, and 20th Century approaches to the work.

“Ex Cathedra’s performance of Bruckner’s Mass in E Minor, complete with wind and brass players from the CBSO, was quite simply glorious. Players and singers brought particular pathos to the Kyrie, bringing out the searing suspensions and intense chromaticism. The Gloria & Credo contrasted sections of immensity with passages of quietude in an expert reading by conductor, Jeffrey Skidmore. A magnificent conclusion to a magnificent concert.”

Read in full at www.reviewsgate.com

“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