Duke Ellington's Sacred Concert/Bruckner's Mass in E minor| Hertfordshire Chorus

Duke Ellington’s celebratory Sacred Concert is a spectacular blend of gospel and jazz music with traditional choral singing and reverential tone of European liturgical music. Although he is best known for his jazz arrangements, Duke Ellington described his Sacred Concert work as "... the most important thing I have ever done."

Bruckner's Mass in E minor is certainly one of the most beautiful and powerful works ever composed for a choir and wind instruments. It is Bruckner's second mass and he scored it exclusively for wind instruments in the orchestra because the performance space for the Mass' intended premiere was outside Linz Cathedral. It is arguably his first masterpiece and it illustrates his unique style which combines the simplicity of Italian Renaissance polyphony with romantic style harmony and powerful combinations of vocal and instrumental texture.