We are delighted to announce the latest release in our collectable ‘A Year at..’ series with this album of music from Portsmouth Cathedral, the Cathedral Choir making its first appearance on the Regent label. This wide­ranging collection takes us through the church’s year from Advent to St Cecilia’s Day (22 November) ­ the patron saint of music .

As befits the ‘Cathedral of the Sea’, the journey takes in, not only the major Christian festivals of the church’s year, but also the distinctively Portsmouth flavour found in the annual Seafarers’ Service, the Royal Marines Band Memorial Service, and the annual commemoration of D­Day. The sea­themed items include an organ solo by Philip Moore ‘Fanfare de Maris’, extensively featuring the recent Trompette de Maris added to the organ in 2017, and Grayston Ives’s setting of ‘They that go down to the sea in ships’ (commissioned by Portsmouth Cathedral).

Christmas in Portsmouth would not be complete without ‘I saw three ships’ performed here in the arrangement by Richard Lloyd. Portsmouth and it’s role in the D­Day landings is also marked with George Richford’s ‘Chanson de Normandie’ commissioned for the 80th Anniversary of D­ Day. The set text uses words from a Verlaine poem used as radio code to the resistance in northern France for the week and the day before the largest invasion the world has ever witnessed.