Tallis in wonderland

The piece I’d never part with

Choral singers and their music directors around the UK will be raising brimful glasses on 24 September in celebration of Sir John Rutter’s 80th birthday. His music is, after all, buried deep in the mu

The year was 1987. The Soviet Union, under leader Mikhail Gorbachev, was approaching its final chapters. As if to catch the dying embers of the USSR, recently graduated pianist James Kirby left his li

PETER GILES

New Generation Publishing 379pp (hb) £18.99 The ambition of Will Fraser’s debut novel is never in doubt. Weaving together sometimes self-conscious observations about the nature of music with slow-burn

While attendance at most churches has been in decline for many decades, a recent trend reversing this trajectory is emerging – that of attending evensong. Evensong (‘choral vespers’ if associated with