Few concerts can have been better served for acoustics than Faire is the Heaven at St John’s Church, Epping.  With its sky-blue, barrel-vaulted roof it was also the perfect setting for an evening of anthems epitomising the very essence of Englishness.

An anthem is a song of praise or gladness and John Ireland’s Greater love hath no man and Hubert Parry’s Songs of Farewell provided an imposing Edwardian tone to commence the programme.  Contemplative and thoughtful the music also carried with it a sense of foreboding for darker times to come.  It is not surprising then that Ireland’s piece, with its opening grandeur transformed to a final long-held chord, should feature regularly in services of remembrance.

But this was not simply a programme of nostalgia. Composers Jonathan Dove and James Macmillan introduced a contemporary edge and Dove’s setting of Psalm 139 lifted the audience beyond the mere terrestrial as voices seemed to echo through the outer reaches of space.

Paul Ayres provided added inspiration as organ accompanist and came into his own with solo performances of Nicholas Ansdell-Evan’s Passacaglia and Patrick Gower’s extraordinary adaptation of Jeremiah Clarke’s Trumpet Voluntary, a virtuoso performance that built up an astonishing crescendo like a jet engine powering for take-off.

Harlow Chorus rose to the occasion in this excellent and stimulating programme with changing moods and dynamics finely balanced and detailed throughout by conductor Sarah Tenant-Flowers.

And only the Victorian grandeur of Parry’s Blest pair of sirens, its harmonies built on a surge of Victorian confidence, could adequately conclude such a stirring and thought provoking evening, where everyone departed that little bit more “in tune with men”.

Laurence Sach