Salisbury Choir Festival
Saturday 26th April 2025
St Thomas's Church, Salisbury
The Farrant Singers took part in this wonderful celebration of music making in Salisbury. Our half-hour set included madrigals and spirituals, and a fun arrangement of the William Tell overture!
Choral Spectacular!
Saturday 5th April 2025
Wilton Parish Church
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Saturday 12th April 2025
Romsey Abbey
A joint concert with our friends at the Romsey Singers in a fabulous concert of choral favourites.
The massed choir of around 80 voices sang in the superb acoustic of the glittering Italianate parish church in Wilton, and again the following week in glorious Romsey Abbey. ​​​
Allegri - Miserere
Striggio - Ecce beatam lucem
Reger - Unser lieben Frauen Traum
Brahms - Geistliches Lied
Tallis - Spem in alium
Fauré - Requiem
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Conductor - Philip Lawson
Organist - Richard McVeigh
Rejoice and be merry
Saturday 14th December 2024
St Martin's Church, Salisbury
A wonderful selection of traditional Christmas carols and inspiring arrangements:
Rejoice and be merry
A great and mighty wonder
The first nowell (arr. Ola Gjeilo)
Angels from the realms of glory
King Jesus hath a garden
Hodie Christus natus est (Jan Pieterszoon Sweelinck)
I saw three ships
Coventry carol (arr. Ola Gjeilo)
The carol singers (William Sterndale Bennett, arr. Philip Lawson)​​​
Audience carols:
O come, O come Emmanuel
God rest you merry, gentlemen
Unto us is born a son
As with gladness men of old​
With seasonal readings by Hannah Stokely and Julian Wiltshire:
Let us gather hand in hand (anon)
Noel: Christmas Eve (Robert Bridges)
Mistletoe (Walter de la Mare)
Cat in the manger (U A Fanthorpe)
The oxen (Thomas Hardy)
The burning babe (Robert Southwell)
The Innkeeper's Wife (Clive Sansom)
Three gypsies (Charles Causley)
Innocents' song (Charles Causley)
The Christmas rose (Cecil Day Lewis)
From 'Cider with Rosie' (Laurie Lee)
Bernstein and Barber
Saturday 9th November 2024
St Martin's Church, Salisbury
Morten Lauridsen - O magnum mysterium
Florence Price - Air (Suite No 1 for Organ)
Samuel Barber - Agnus Dei
Aaron Copland - In the beginning
​​​George Walker - Invokation (organ)​
Eric Whitacre - Lux aurumque
Leonard Bernstein - Chichester Psalms
Randall Thompson - Allelulia
​
Philip Lawson, conductor
John Challenger, organ
Pam Jackson, mezzo soprano
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Chamber Concert
Thomas Weelkes - Hosanna
Orlando Gibbons - Drop, drop slow tears
William Byrd - Laudibus in sanctis
​Paul Hindemith - Verger, Puisque tout passe and Un cygne​
​Herbert Howells - Take him, earth, for cherishing
​C Hubert H Parry - My soul, there is a country
​Edward Bairstow - Music, when soft voices die
Gerald Finzi - My spirit sang all day
​William H Harris - Faire is the heaven​
Billy Joel arr. Philip Lawson - Lullabye (Goodnight, my angel)
Ashman & Menken arr. Philip Lawson​​​ - Under the sea
Thursday 17th October 2024
St John the Baptist Church, Hindon
Sing Joyfully
Saturday 8th June 2024
Wilton Parish Church
Thomas Weelkes - Gloria in excelsis
Thomas Tallis - O sacrum convivium
Orlando Gibbons - O clap your hands
William Byrd - Sing Joyfully
John Redford - Rejoice in the Lord
Hans Leo Hassler - Cantate Domino
Bob Chilcott - Oculi Omnium
Philip Lawson - Arise my Dove, Lightly come or lightly go, When the shy star
arr Philip Lawson - Bobby Shafto, Brigg Fair, Penny Lane, Standing in the need of prayer
Charles Villiers Stanford - Justorum animae, The bluebird, Quick we have but a second
Billy Joel arr Philip Lawson - Lullabye
Alan Menken arr Philip Lawson - Under the sea​
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Lamentations
Saturday 2nd March 2024
St Martin's Church, Salisbury
Charles Villiers Stanford - Magnificat and Nunc Dimittis in C
Charles Villiers Stanford - Magnificat and Nunc Dimittis in G
​Robert White - Lamentations (a5)
Edward Bairstow - The Lamentation
​Charles Villiers Stanford - Magnificat and Nunc Dimittis in Bb
Charles Villiers Stanford - Magnificat and Nunc Dimittis in A
In Terra Pax
Saturday 16th December 2023
St Martin's Church, Salisbury
Anon - In dulci jubilo
Anon - There is no rose
Michael Praetorius - Psallite unigenito
William Walton - All this time
Benjamin Britten - A New Year Carol
Richard Rodney Bennett - Out of your sleep
Lennox Berkeley - I sing of a maiden
William Matthias - Sir Christemus
Gerald Finzi - In Terra Pax
Richard Runciman Terry - Myn liking
Kenneth Leighton Lully lulla
arr John Rutter - Down in yon forest
arr Gustav Holst - Personent hodie
Philip Lawson - Evermore
Johann Sebastian Bach - Zion hears
​arr Philip Lawson - Last night of the Christmas Proms
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Requiem
Saturday 11th November 2023
St Martin's Church, Salisbury
William Byrd's 'Mass for 5 Voices' interspersed with movements from the requiems of Brahms, Howells, Rutter and Mozart
William Byrd - KYRIE
Johannes Brahms - Wie lieblich
William Byrd - GLORIA
Herbert Howells - Requiem aeternam
Johann Sebastian Bach - Herzlich tut mich verlangen, BWV 727 (organ solo)
William Byrd - CREDO
John Rutter - The Lord is my shepherd
William Byrd - SANCTUS
William Byrd - BENEDICTUS
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart - Dies irae
William Byrd - AGNUS DEI
*George Thalben-Ball - Elegy (organ solo)
Herbert Howells - Take him, earth, for cherishing​
Philip Lawson, conductor
Simon Dinsdale, organ
Sarum Reflections
with Barney Norris and John Cox
A concert of words and music in aid of St Thomas's Appeal
​
Saturday 1st July 2023
St Thomas's Church, Salisbury
​
Part One: Visitors to Salisbury
Richard Shephard - To Music
From: The Diary of Samuel Pepys Thursday 11 June 1668
From: An Autobiography by Anthony Trollope
From: English Hours by Henry James
Anon - Edi beo thu hevene quene (XIVc)
From: Travels and Travelling 1616-1653 by John Taylor
From: In Pursuit of Spring by Edward Thomas
From: Guilt and Sorrow or Incidents on Salisbury Plain
by William Wordsworth
From: The Complete Adventures of Henry Chalk
by Nick Cowen
From: As I Walked Out One Midsummer Morning
by Laurie Lee
Alec Roth - Men and Angels (words by George Herbert)
From: Martin Chuzzlewit by Charles Dickens
From: The Longest Journey by E. M. Forster
Giovanni Uffereri - Caeli enarrant gloriam Dei
​ A Walk in Melchester with Thomas Hardy:
From: The Early Life of Thomas Hardy, 1840–91
A Cathedral Façade at Midnight
From: Jude the Obscure - Part Third At Melchester
The High-School Lawn
From: Jude the Obscure - Part Third At Melchester
From: Tess of the d’Urbervilles
Andrew Mackay – Summer Dreams
Part Two: Residents in Salisbury
Howard Moody - Nonino
A Walk in Salisbury with George Herbert:
The Water-course by George Herbert
From: The Life of Mr George Herbert by Izaak Walton
Love III by George Herbert
Host by Vikram Seth
Alexander Uttendal - Inclina, Domine, aurem tuam
From: Without Knowing Mr Walkley by Edith Olivier
Home Thoughts in Laventie 1916 by Edward ‘Bim’ Tennant
From: Whose Body? by Dorothy L Sayers
From: The Spire by William Golding
Josef Rheinberger - Abendlied
From: The Enigma of Arrival by V . Naipaul
From: Ultimate Prizes by Susan Howatch
From: Sarum by Edward Rutherfurd
Malcolm Archer - Cloths of Heaven
From: Five Rivers met on a Wooded Plain by Barney Norris
Arthur Sullivan - I hear the soft note
Pater Noster
Reflections on The Lord's Prayer
Saturday 4th March 2023
St Thomas's Church, Salisbury
Plainsong - Pater Noster
William Harris - Holy is the True Light
Orlando di Lasso - Domine Dominus Noster
Heinrich Schütz - Vater Unser
Anton Bruckner - Locus Iste
Maurice Duruflé - Notre Père
Bob Chilcott - Oculi Omnium
John Tavener - The Lord's Prayer
Henry Purcell - Remember Not, Lord
Richard Farrant - Hide Not Thou Thy Face
Igor Stravinsky - Pater Noster
Orlando Gibbons - Amen
Claude Debussy - Trois Chansons de Charles D'Orleans
​SPIRITUALS:
arr Lawson - Down to the river to pray
arr Knight - Swing low, sweet chariot
arr Overton - In the middle of the road
arr Lawson - Deep river
arr Park - Standing in the need of prayer
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Joy to the World
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Saturday 18th December 2021
St Martin's Church, Salisbury
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Boris Ord - Adam lay y-bounden
arr Lawson - Angelus ad Virginem
Francois Poulenc - Quem vidistis
Herbert Howells - Here is the little door
Arvo Pärt - Bogoroditse dyevo
​JS Bach arr Michael Allen - Air Pour Les Trompettes
Michael Kamen - Quintet
​Morten Lauridsen - O magnum mysterium
Herbert Howells - Sing lullaby
Francois Poulenc - Hodie
arr Overton - Joy to the World
​George Frideric Handel - Hallelujah Chorus
arr Clements - Gabriel's message
arr Wood - Ding dong! Merrily on high
arr Kay/Overton - Gaudete
​arr John Iveson - Christmas Crackers, A Carol Fantasy,
We Wish You A Merry Christmas
​John Gardner - Tomorrow shall be my dancing day
Bob Chilcott - Shepherd's Carol
arr Ralph Vaughan Williams - We've been a while a-wandering
arr Lawson - Jingle bells
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Barbican Brass
Simon Dinsdale - organ
Philip Lawson - conductor
Montiverdi - Vespers
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Saturday 20th November 2021
Salisbury Cathedral
​
We joined Salisbury Musical Society as a guest choir, along with St. John's Singers and the Cathedral Choir, for this performance of Monteverdi’s famous Vespers of 1610
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The orchestral accompaniment was provided by period instrument ensemble Florilegium.
This concert was part of the Cathedral’s (belated) celebration of its 800th anniversary and was conducted by David Halls.
​​The Old Order Changeth
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Saturday 23rd October 2021
St Martin's Church, Salisbury
​​
​William Byrd - Sing joyfully
Thomas Tallis - Hear the voice and prayer
Orlando Gibbons - O clap your hands​
Richard Lloyd - Passion Chorale (organ solo)
​​Edgar Bainton - And I saw a new Heaven
Charles Villiers Stanford - Justorum animae
Edward Bairstow - Lord, I call upon Thee
Sir Edward Elgar - Light out of darkness
Richard Lloyd - Church Parade (organ solo)​
Richard Lloyd - View me, Lord
Richard Lloyd - All so still
Richard Shephard - The old order changeth
Richard Shephard - Never weather-beaten sail
Richard Shephard - The Birds
Richard Shephard - And when the builders
​
Simon Dinsdale - organ
Philip Lawson - conductor
Hail Gladdening Light
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Thursday 16th April 2021
Church of St Mary the Virgin, Kingston Deverill
​
​David Briggs - Hail Gladdening Light
​Plainsong - Light's abode, celestial Salem
Robert White - Christe qui lux es
William Byrd - O lux beata
​Palestrina - Nunc Dimittis
​Théodore Dubois - Toccata for organ
​Sergei Rachmaninov - Svete Tihiy (O Gladsome Light)
Eric Whitacre - Lux aurumque
William Harris - Bring us, O Lord God
​Gustav Holst - Nunc Dimittis
JS Bach - Brich an, o schönes Morgenlicht
Chant - The Lord is my light (Psalm 27)
Johann Sebastian Bach - The duteous day now closeth
​Charles Wood - Hail Gladdening Light
​
Chris Mahon - organ
Andrew Mackay - conductor
Photograph by Anne Wiltshire
Christmas Concert
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Saturday 21st December 2019
St Martin's Church, Salisbury​
​
GF Handel - Coronation Anthems:
Zadok the Priest
Let Thy Hand be Strengthened
The King shall Rejoice
My Heart is Inditing
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Carols for choir and audience and, of course,
join in the Hallelujah Chorus
​
The Farrant Orchestra
Simon Dinsdale - organ
Autumn Concert
Saturday 9th November 2019
Wilton Parish Church​
​
Orlando Gibbons - Drop, drop slow tears (Song 46)
Orlando Gibbons - This is the record of John
Orlando Gibbons - O clap your hands
Henry Purcell - Rejoice in the Lord alway (The Bell Anthem)
Henry Purcell - Remember not, Lord, our offences
Henry Purcell - I was glad
Henry Purcell - Chaconne from The Fairy Queen
Henry Purcell - Hear my prayer
Henry Purcell - My heart is inditing
​Giacomo Carissimi - Jephte
Historicus - Andrew Stewart
Jephte - Morley Beswick
Filia - Abigail Hooper
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The Farrant String Ensemble
Mark Wood - organ
Peter Grove - harpsichord
Chamber Concert
Thursday 3rd October 2019
St Andrew's Church, Hurstbourne Priors
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Plainsong - Veni sancte spiritus
​Thomas Tomkins - When David heard
Peter Philips - O crux splendidior
Thomas Weelkes - When David heard
​C Hubert H Parry - My soul, there is a country
C Hubert H Parry - Never weather-beaten sail
Sir Charles Villiers Stanford - Beati quorum via
​John Tavener - A Hymn to the Mother of God
Pierre Villette - Hymne à la Vierge
Anton Bruckner - Ave Maria
​Eric Whitacre - Lux Aurumque
Sergei Rachmaninov - Bogoroditse
Heinrich Isaac/JS Bach - The duteous day now closeth
Joseph Rheinberger - Abendlied
The Glory of Notre Dame - A Tribute
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Friday 21st June 2019
Gillingham Methodist Church
​​
David Briggs (organ):
​Louis Marchand - Grand Jeu, 3e Livre d'Orgue (1696)
Louis Couperin - Chaconne in G
Louis Vierne - From ‘Pièces de Fantaisie’
o Cathédrales
o Carillon de Westminster
Pierre Cochereau, transcribed by David Briggs - Berceuse à la Mémoire de Louis Vierne
Pierre Cochereau, transcribed by David Briggs - Scherzo Symphonique Improvisée (November 1968)
​
Maurice Duruflé - Four motets on Gregorian themes
Ubi caritas et amor
Tota pulchra es
Tu es Petrus
Tantum ergo
Louis Vierne - Messe Solonnelle in C sharp minor, Op 16
Beatitudes
Choral Classics from around Europe
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Saturday 15th June 2019
St Mary and St Nicholas' Church, Wilton
​​
Gregorio Allegri - Miserere mei
Plainsong - Assumpta est Maria
Palestrina - Missa Assumpta est Maria - Kyrie
William Byrd - Laudate Pueri
Palestrina - Missa Assumpta est Maria - Gloria
Orlando Gibbons - Fantasia for organ
Antonio Lotti - Crucifixus à 8
Palestrina - Missa Assumpta est Maria - Credo
Henryk Górecki - Totus Tuus
Palestrina - Missa Assumpta est Maria - Sanctus & Benedictus
Arvo Pärt - The Beatitudes
Palestrina - Missa Assumpta est Maria - Agnus Dei I
Matthew Martin - Vidi aquam
Palestrina - Missa Assumpta est Maria - Agnus Dei II
John Tavener - Song for Athene
​
Mark Wood - organ
Seventh Heaven
A concert of sacred music form seven countries and seven centuries
​
Thursday 9th May 2019
St Mary's Church, Stapleford
​Plainsong - Veni sancte spiritus
​King John of Portugal - Crux Fidelis
Peter Philips - O crux splendidior
John Taverner - Dum transisset
​Thomas Tomkins - When David heard
Henry Purcell - Hear my prayer
Thomas Weelkes - When David heard
​C Hubert H Parry - My soul, there is a country
C Hubert H Parry - Never weather-beaten sail
Charles Villiers Stanford - Beati quorum via
​John Tavener - A Hymn to the Mother of God
Pierre Villette - Hymne à la Vierge
Anton Bruckner - Ave Maria
​Eric Whitacre - Lux Aurumque
Sergei Rachmaninov - Bogoroditse
Joseph Rheinberger - Abendlied
​John Sheppard - Libera nos, salva nos
Music for the Season of Lent
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Saturday 23rd March 2019
St Martin's Church, Salisbury
​​
Gabriel Fauré - Requiem in D minor, Op 48
Frank Martin - Mass for double choir
Francis Poulenc - Quatre motets pour un temps de pénitence
Timor et tremor
Vinea mea electa
Tenebrae factae sunt
Tristis est anima mea
​
​​John Challenger - organ
A Selection of Recently Performed Works
Bob Chilcott - Salisbury Vespers (world premiere)
John Rutter - Gloria
Giovanni Gabrieli - In ecclesiis and Omnes gentes, plaudite manibus
J S Bach - Motets
Thomas Tallis - O sacrum convivium
Henry Purcell - Hear my prayer
William Harris - Faire is the heaven
Anton Bruckner - Christus factus est
Sergei Rachmaninov - Vespers
Charles Wood - Hail gladdening light
Charles Villiers Stanford - Eternal Father
Herbert Sumsion - They that go down to the sea
Arnold Bax - Mater Ora Filium
Malcolm Archer - Vespers (world premiere)
Jonathan Dove - Into thy hands
Philip Moore - Three prayers of Dietrich Bonhoeffer
Paul Mealor - Now sleeps the crimson petal
Alison Duncan - Night
Alison Cameron - A child of the snows (first performance)
Gabriel Jackson - The Spacious Firmament
Eric Whitacre - Lux Aurumque
Sir C. Hubert H. Parry - Songs of Farewell
Alec Roth - The Elixir (first performance)
Alison Cameron - A Foreign Field (first performance)
Maurice Duruflé - Requiem Op 9
Richard Lloyd - Christus natus est (for The Farrant Singers on their 60th anniversary, 2018)
Richard Shephard - And when the builders​
Guest Artists
​
Elizabeth Kenny - lute and theorbo
Reicho Ichise - viola da gamba
Guy Cutting - tenor
Andrew Littlemore - horn
Simon Dinsdale - organ
Edward Reeve - organ
Fisher Ensemble
Amy Carson - soprano
Timothy Dickinson - baritone
Alison Hill - soprano
Colin Howard - tenor
Simon McEnery - tenor
Jonathan Willcocks - conductor
John Challenger - organ
Mark Wood - organ
Past Highlights
Tour to Galway
Thursday 26th - Sunday 29th October 2017
The choir travelled to Galway on the invitation of Irish choir Cois Cladaigh and performed concerts in Clifden, Connemara and Galway City, as well as a Sunday morning service in St Nicholas Collegiate Church, Galway
​
All the Queen's Men
Saturday 10th June 2017
St Michael the Archangel, Mere
Part of Flower and Music Festival 2017, Mere
​
Brahms German Requiem
Saturday 11th February 2017
St Paul's Church, Covent Garden
Part of the Brandenburg Festival
​
Magna Cantata
Tuesday 7th - Friday 10th July 2015
Salisbury Cathedral
A staged cantata written by Philip Lawson and Andrew Mackay to commemorate the 800th anniversary of the sealing of Magna Carta​​​​