^{CURATED BY JEFFREY SKIDMORE | FIRST PUBLISHED 07 FEB 2026}

What Ex Cathedra does has always felt special to me, though much of it happens quietly, behind the scenes. Over the years we’ve commissioned a great deal of music – far more than most people realise – and not all of it has yet found its way onto disc. Finance, inevitably, plays its part. But those pieces live very vividly in my mind, and this playlist reflects not only what we have performed and recorded, but also what continues to inspire us and shape our musical identity.

One such work is James MacMillan’s Seven Angels – a profoundly powerful piece scored for two shofar and other biblical instruments. It is deeply moving, elemental music, and although there is no recording yet, it remains a work I long for us to capture, so it can be added to this playlist when that’s done!

Alongside this stands Alec Roth’s Earthrise, written for our 40th anniversary: a 40-part meditation not on space, but on our planet — its beauty, its fragility, and the question of why we continue to destroy it. For me, it stands shoulder to shoulder with Tallis’s Spem in alium. When we perform the two together, audiences respond with overwhelming warmth. New commissions like these are central to who we are, and they sit naturally alongside the older repertoire.

Early Music, of course, is part of Ex Cathedra’s DNA. Michel-Richard de Lalande would have to be here – particularly the Requiem from De Profundis, which was hugely inspirational to me in our formative years. I was also deeply influenced by the sound world created by Les Arts Florissants under William Christie. Hearing Atys on the radio was a revelatory moment – so extraordinary that I remember thinking we might as well pack up and go home.

Some works stay with you for life. My favourite piece of all time – and one that will close my final season – is Beethoven’s Missa solemnis. Beethoven’s understanding of the mass text is vast, human, and searching in the widest possible sense. We’ve performed it several times now, with period instruments, with the CBSO, and with mixed forces, and every encounter reveals something new.

Then there is Stockhausen. Performing Welt-Parlament was transformative – a work that demands total immersion, intense preparation, and deep trust in the process. It changed the way I think about contemporary music and sound itself.

Finally, Elgar’s The Dream of Gerontius holds a special place – performed with the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment as a period-instrument interpretation of a deeply local composer’s masterpiece, revealing layers of clarity and colour I hadn’t encountered before.

Across all this music, old and new, there is dialogue: the past feeding the present, and the present illuminating the past. This playlist reflects that journey.

Listen on Spotify.

TRACK LIST

1. Alec Roth Earthrise: Part 1: ‘Man’s Drive to Explore and Exploit’ | Ex Cathedra, Jeffrey Skidmore
2. Thomas Tallis Spem in alium | The Choir of King’s College, Cambridge, Sir David Willcocks
3. Michel-Richard de Lalande De Profundis: ‘Requiem aeternam’ | Ex Cathedra, Jeffrey Skidmore
4. De Lalande Regina coeli: ‘Regina coeli’ | Ex Cathedra, Jeffrey Skidmore
5. Jean-Baptiste Lully Atys, Prologue: Ouverture
6. Act I, Scene 3: ‘Allons, allons accourez tous’
7. Act III, Scene 4: Prelude. ‘Dormons, dormons tous’ | William Christie & Les Arts Florissants
8. Ludwig van Beethoven Missa solemnis in D, Op. 123: Kyrie: ‘Kyrie eleison’. Assai sostenuto
9. Kyrie: ‘Christe eleison’. Andante assai ben marcato
10. Kyrie: ‘Kyrie eleison’. Tempo primo | Lina Johnson, Olivia Vermeulen, Martin Platz, Manuel Walser, Le Concert de Nations, Jordi Savall

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^{Karlheinz Stockhausen Welt-Parlament (1|3) | Südfunk-Chor Stuttgart, Rupert Huber}

11. Edward Elgar The Dream of Gerontius, Op. 38, Pt 1: ‘Jesu, Maria – I am near to death’ | Nicky Spence, Gabrieli, Paul McCreesh
12. William Byrd Mass for Four Voices: ‘Agnus Dei’ | The Choir of King's College, Cambridge, Sir David Willcocks
13. Orlande de Lassus Ave Verum Corpus | Nicholas Mulroy, Greg Skidmore, Ex Cathedra, Jeffrey Skidmore
14. Giovanni Gabrieli Canzon duodecimi toni a 10, C179 | His Majesty’s Sagbutts & Cornets
15. Jean-Philippe Rameau Les Indes galantes: ‘Règnez, amour’ | Carolyn Sampson, Ex Cathedra, Jeffrey Skidmore
16. Antonio Vivaldi Versicle and Response, RV 593: I. ‘Deus in adiutorium’ | Ex Cathedra, Jeffrey Skidmore
17. Francesco Landini Giunta vaga biltà | James Bowman, Early Music Consort of London, David Munrow
18. Henry Purcell Te Deum & Jubilate, Z232: ‘Vouchsafe, o Lord’ | Tim Mead, La Nuova Musica, David Bates
19. JS Bach Singet dem Herrn ein neues Lied, BWV 225: I. ‘Singet dem Herrn’ | Solomon’s Knot
20. JS Bach St Matthew Passion, BWV 224, Pt 1: ‘Come, you daughters, share my mourning’
21. Pt 2: Aria. ‘Have mercy, Lord, on me’ | Ex Cathedra, Jeffrey Skidmore
22. JS Bach Mass in B Minor, BVW 232: ‘Agnus Dei’
22. ‘Dona nobis pacem’ | Andreas Scholl, Collegium Vocale Gent, Philippe Herreweghe