Allegri’s “Miserere” – a special performance was included in the Tuesday Evensong during Holy Week. The College Chapel Choir brings together 34 students, and sings every Tuesday during semester and for other special services and events at the College.

On 4 April the St Paul’s College Chapel Choir performed Allegri’s “Miserere”. This iconic piece of 17th Century unaccompanied music for choir is a regular part of the choral repertoire of the great cathedrals of Europe. Composed around 1638, Allegri’s setting of the Miserere was used by the choir of the Sistine Chapel during Holy Week liturgy, a practice dating to at least 1514. The Choir sung the ‘Evolution’ version of the work, developed by The Sixteen. During the Choral Pilgrimage 2013 Harry Christophers and The Sixteen presented a new version of Allegri’s Miserere charting its evolution. The version intends to shed light on the complicated history of this most famous of choral pieces. Listen out for the famous “top C” in the second-half of the 4-voice, sung here by Ariana Ricci, Elsa Susnjara, William Varga and Gabriel Desiderio.

On Friday 31 March we ventured into the labyrinth to discover a very personal path to enlightenment. Anna Fraser (soprano), Thomas Wilson (organ) and the women of St Paul’s College Chapel Choir (Jack Stephens, Director of Music) gave a sumptuous and spiritual journey, guided by College Chaplain, Rev Antony Weiss, showcasing this beautiful and rarely heard French Baroque vocal work. Michel-Richard de Lalande’s “Leçons de Ténèbres” and “Miserere” (1730) is a beautiful, decorative, introvert sacred music of great style and grace and showcased the true baroque tone of the College Chapel’s two-manual Flentrop pipe organ.