On the eve of St Cecilia’s Day, Instruments of Time & Truth and the Oxford Consort of Voices gather in the University Church under Edward Higginbottom for an evening that marks three occasions at once. Henry Purcell’s peerless ode Hail! Bright Cecilia, first heard in 1692, stands beside the Dies irae of Michel-Richard de Lalande, written in 1690 for the funeral rites of the French Dauphine and performed here in the tercentenary year of the composer’s death. Composed within two years of one another, the two works catch the English and French baroque at their height and reveal how differently each tradition spoke. The evening closes with the last of Handel’s coronation anthems, My heart is inditing. The occasion is also a celebration of Edward Higginbottom’s eightieth year. He is joined by fourteen soloists from the Oxford Consort of Voices and a large period-instrument ensemble of strings, oboes, flutes, bassoon, trumpets, timpani and organ, with additional singers in the Handel.

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