Beyond the Horizon

Few evenings in the choral calendar can bring together music of such sustained beauty and depth. Parry's Songs of Farewell — premiered as a complete set here in Oxford in 1919 at the composer's memorial — were written in the shadow of the First World War and of his own terminal illness, yet radiate a rich autumnal glow that places them among the pinnacles of the a cappella repertoire.

Rheinberger's Cantus Missae, steeped in the traditions of Bach, Schumann and Brahms, unfolds its craftsmanship across two choirs in radiant E flat major. From Ildebrando Pizzetti — described as "the finest polyphonist Italy has had since the Renaissance" comes a personal and moving setting of de Profundis.

And as night draws in we close with perhaps Mahler's most inward song, Ich bin der Welt abhanden gekommen, here realised in Clytus Gottwald's shimmering sixteen-part choral transcription — music that doesn't so much…