Festival of St Cecilia
22nd November 2017Westminster Cathedral
This was the third Festival of St Cecilia the Mistress and I have attended. We have completed the full set of the three venues: St Paul's, Westminster Abbey and Westminster Cathedral. St Cecilia is the patron saint of music and the service is organised jointly by Help Musicians UK and the Worshipful Company of Musicians. As the service is all about musicians, the choirs, organists and soloists, it was a revelation to experience the remarkable acoustics of Westminster Cathedral. I'll let you into a secret, Sir Christopher Wren spent more attention on the dome than the acoustics when designing St Paul's. Highlights were the performance by the choirs of Heinrich Schutz's motet and Crispian Steele-Perkin's performance of John Stanley's Trumpet Voluntary in D.
After the service, the Clerk, Mistress and I had a very pleasant "toad in the hole" lunch at Brown's with the Immediate Past Master and Camilla. Browns was packed with masters, wardens and clerks from various livery companies.