A collaboration between chamber choir Excelsis and composer Clive Osgood, has resulted in the release of a CD of Osgood’s setting of the Magnificat.

It was recorded last autumn with the London Mozart Players, soloist Amy Carson and directed by Robert Lewis.

The setting has been written as a companion piece to J.S Bach’s famous setting, making use of a more contemporary musical language. The track et misericordia has been played a number of times on Classic FM.

The Cathedral Music Magazine review said: “There is a thrilling, irrepressible rhythmic drive to Osgood’s music, and he shows himself an accomplished composer for voices. The Excelsis choir dispatch Osgood’s virtuosity with panache while finding the requisite tenderness when called for.”

Clive Osgood has spent his life in music as an organist, teacher and composer. He is currently director of music and organist at St Bartholomew’s Church in Haslemere and teaches at Reed’s School in Cobham.

His compositions are in the classical tradition heavily influenced by Bach and Mozart but injected with jazz harmony and the rhythmic vitality of Latin American music.

Magnificat premiered on Coronation Day last year and the choir will be reprising et misericordia at their summer concert on Saturday, June 15 at 7.30pm at St Christopher’s Church, Haslemere.

Alongside works by Bach, Mozart and Durante, Excelsis will perform the popular Requiem setting by Matthew Coleridge with Jayden Lamcellari on solo cello. Tickets are available from the Choir’s website https://www.ticketsource.co.uk/excelsis/t-nogoxkp