John Stainer made it his life’s work to reform and renew the standards of music in schools, parish churches, colleges and cathedrals up and down the land. His two most lasting legacies are our thriving cathedral choral tradition and this piece – The Crucifxion. Intended to be accessible, and full of the zeal and emotion of the reforming High Church, Stainer’s meditation on the Passion was immediately taken up in both Britain and America, and is as popular today as ever. Here, Duncan Ferguson and the Choir of St Mary’s Cathedral, Edinburgh are joined by two rising-star Scottish soloists and, in the hymns, by a nave-full of local young musicians and the cathedral’s own worshippers to create a true sense of the musical community spirit that the composer had in mind.