When I arrived at Dorchester-on-Thames, Oxfordshire, in good time for the St Birinus Festival’s Saturday evening performance of the Monteverdi Vespers in Dorchester Abbey, the village was abuzz with festivalgoers already steeped in this four-day summer festival of sacred music.
Now in its fourth year, the festival combines liturgical and concert performances, with daily Lauds, Mass, Vespers and Compline as its liturgical backbone. Some of the crowds were enjoying a quick drink in the courtyard of the George Hotel between the end of Pontifical Vespers, with Gregorian chant, at 5.30pm and the start of this concert at 6.30pm.
