Stainer wrote his Crucifixion for choir and organ without, as far as I know, any suggestion that it might later be orchestrated. Presumably he did so deliberately, so that the work (‘A Meditation upon the Sacred Passion of the Holy Redeemer’) might always be given in church or chapel, never becoming, as so many oratorios have done, essentially concert pieces. He gauged expertly the degree of difficulty appropriate for a wide use by church choirs – just enough to make its performance an occasion, and never so much as to discourage the attempt. The tenor and baritone soloists need to be good singers but not necessarily professionals; the organist needs to be resourceful but hardly a virtuoso. It is due to this, as well as to the character of music and text, that even now, 116 years after it was first given, few towns in Britain are likely to find themselves in Holy Week without any local performance of Stainer’s Crucifixion.

The orchestration by Barry Rose has been most respectfully and tastefully completed, but it does alter the work’s identity. To put it somewhat irreverently, in social terms, one might say it has ‘come up in the world’. Orchestral forces, however modest, bring an element of sophistication: ‘church’ it still may be, but definitely not ‘chapel’. There is a richer coloration and at the same time a greater refinement of its expressiveness. But although the original organ accompaniment is available as ever, and there is no compulsion to change to this, I feel just faintly in the air (perhaps) a sense of dispossession.

It probably comes about also with the cultivated refinement of this excellent choir – very different from those who would ‘Fling wide the gates’ in earlier days. The soloists, though professional opera singers, have an intimate style that also contrast with memories of the various Franks and Walters (and such names) who used to accept the annual engagement. But of course the CD deserves nothing but praise: it is a finely conceived, sensitively accomplished performance; well recorded, too. Perhaps someone will now see whether anything can be done with Maunder’s Olivet to Calvary.