Gloria

 This morning Radio 3 noted the 65th anniversary of the first performance of Francis Poulenc's Gloria, in Boston, by the Boston Symphony Orchestra. The ever chirpy Tom McKinney marked the occasion by playing the first two movements of the great work (the second of which, 'Laudamus Te', was inspired, according to Poulenc, by the sight of monks playing football). Poulenc was happy with the Boston premiere – 'very good, very fine, a success' – but had found the final rehearsal even better, indeed 'sublime'. That is certainly the word for the final movement, 'Qui sedes ad dexteram Patris', surely one of the most beautiful pieces of 20th-century sacred music. Here's a link, to a performance by the same orchestra, with Kathleen Battle the soprano soloist...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=41VpR9QqHyM&list=RD41VpR9QqHyM&start_radio=1