Iain Farrington’s Nova! Nova! was commissioned by Andrew Nethsingha for his last Advent Carol Service at St John’s and premiered in November 2022. A virtuosic tour de force that has the makings of a choral classic, Nova! Nova! requires the singers to click fingers, stamp feet, clap hands and negotiate verbal repetitions at breath-taking speed, while co-ordinating with a rhythmically far-from-predictable organ part. Not everything in this setting of the traditional fifteenth-century text has performers (and listeners) on the edge of their seats: a central section built round the story of the Annunciation provides a moment of relative calm. However, the overall effect is one of extreme exhilaration. A fitting conclusion to an energising journey through twenty years of new sacred music.

from notes by Martin Ennis © 2023