Performer: Ex Cathedra

Enhanced by bells, Ex Cathedra Jeffrey Skidmore give a low-key but highly dramatic performance of Rachmaninov’s Vespers in Birmingham Town Hall

Bradley Smith, as Evangelist, and a fine cast of soloists drove this Good Friday account of Bach’s St Matthew Passion from Ex Cathedra in Birmingham.

In performing the Vespers in the acoustically wonderful Milton Court, Jeffrey Skidmore took the imaginative decision to interleaving its movements with solo piano works, played by Steven Osborne. It proved inspirational programming.