Howells English Mass

An evening of glorious music awaits you in the majestic setting of the Musicians’ Church, and includes a not to be missed, rarely performed An English Mass by Herbert Howells.

Friendship links three of the works in our programme: Farrar, Finzi, Howells, and Harold Darke (organist of St Michael’s Cornhill 1916-1966). Finzi’s beautiful and intimate Requiem da Camera was written in memory of his esteemed teacher Ernest Farrar, killed in the final days of the First World War, and Farrar’s moving and lyrical partsong Margaritae Sorori which follows is a fitting valediction.

Howells wrote his turbulent An English Mass, a work full of agony and ecstasy, for Darke and his The St Michael’s Singers in the year after the disastrous first performances of his vast Missa Sabrinensis.