John Rutter’s new Missa Brevis, written for Robert Sharpe and the Choir of York Minster, in memory of composer, Richard Shephard, is the major work in this collection of recent sacred choral music by living composers.

In addition to Rutter’s significant addition to the repertoire of shorter Mass settings, the collection also features contributions from other long-established composers of church music: Cecilia McDowall, Judith Weir, Philip Moore, and James MacMillan, together with a number of works from emerging new voices – the majority being younger female composers, with most of these pieces receiving their first commercial recording.

York Minster has always been renowned as a place that has maintained and advanced the artistic endeavours of its music. The works on this album reflect that breadth of invention in the continually-developing tradition of sacred choral music over the last twenty-five years with works from 1997 to the 2020s in a wide variety of styles – the majority of pieces written within the last decade.

There are settings of traditional texts, such as the Latin Mass, Evening Canticles, and selections from the Book of Psalms, through to contemporary writers. Many of the works were written specifically for York Minster, its choir, and its organ, and the programme ends in extrovert style with Celebration – a flamboyant solo organ piece written by John Rutter in memory of Richard Shephard to partner his Missa Brevis, and here demonstrating the full range of the York Minster organ from the quietest string stops to the iconic Tuba Mirabilis following its recent major rebuild in 2021.