This recording from the sopranos and altos of Buckfast Abbey Choir captures the unique sound world of upper voices for the Mass. Drawing on repertoire from a short, yet vibrant, period in early twentieth-century France, the programme showcases Masses by Gabriel Fauré, Jehan Alain and Jean Langlais.

The early twentieth century was a period of enormous innovation and inventiveness in French organ music. On his début album, Charles Maxtone-Smith brings together some of its finest treasures by three titans of the organ repertoire, namely Louis Vierne, Charles Tournemire, and Maurice Duruflé, making full use of the resources of Buckfast Abbey’s Ruffatti instrument.

Pentecost, the foundational moment of the creation of the Church, was an overpowering spectacle marked by mighty wind and tongues of fire, by which the apostles were filled with the Holy Spirit and set out upon their universal mission of evangelisation to all peoples. In this album, the Choir of Westminster Cathedral demonstrates the majesty and glory of this story anew through their performance of the psalms and chants appointed for the celebration of Vespers at the end of this day.

The Solemnity of Corpus Christi celebrates each year the Real Presence of Jesus Christ in the Blessed Sacrament. On this album, the Choir of Buckfast Abbey presents a musical offering bearing witness to this great celebration through music rooted in the words and ancient chants of this feast. At the heart of this album is a Mass setting by Martin Baker, Missa O sacrum convivium!, newly commissioned for the Choir of Buckfast Abbey and here given its premier recording, which develops chant melodies into a passionate tour de force for choir and organ.

The organ stands at the spiritual heart of music heard in French Catholic liturgy. In this disc, Peter Stevens invites us to encounter two contrasting titans of this world, César Franck and Charles Tournemire, at one time teacher and pupil, who forged compositional idioms that continue to dominate the world of the organ and its use as an instrument capable of inflecting the spiritual sensibilities of French culture.