DRIVING FORCE

Visits to Cambridge, with BASIL RAMSEY

People worldwide will recognise the names of Oxford and Cambridge (they seem always to be in that order) as places of learning in the UK. Both cities have their full share of musical activity of every possible kind.

As I live within comfortable driving distance of Cambridge, I much enjoy indulging in musical visits, and especially during the Summer Music Festival, which has just finished for this year. It is directed by Juliet Abrahamson to provide locals and visitors with a feast of music from near and far, not overlooking the choir of King's College, known and adulated globally.

The first concert on 15 July was at King's (repeated in London a few days later as a Late Night Prom), and in substance exactly what was required to enrich our minds with distinctive psalm settings from the mid-16th century to the intensity of living composers known for their spirituality - Jonathan Harvey and James Macmillan.

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