“CONDUCTOR, composer, priest, and all-round good chap,” wrote the Revd Christopher Smith of Ronald Corp (Obituary, 16 May 2025).

All four characters were presented at Corp’s memorial concert — a celebration of his life — in the Cadogan Hall, in London, on 23 June through superb programming, choice of musicians, the presenter Petroc Trelawny, and three short tributes.

Trelawny gave the briefest, but exemplary, masterclass in introducing Corp through his own reminiscences and by drawing erudite, poignant memories from the counter-tenor Magid El Bushra, the leader of the New London Orchestra (NLO), David Juritz, and Dame Jane Glover.

Glover and Corp had met as students at Oxford, and she spoke of Corp’s passion for Gilbert and Sullivan, and their taking lead roles in a production of Iolanthe directed by Mel Smith. “The faculty was small. We did everything.” While their lives had overlapped sporadically, including living on the same street for some time, and it was Glover who invited Corp to become chorus master of the now London Chorus, she admitted to not knowing “what a wonderful composer he was” and “the variety of his works”. This we were to find out ourselves that evening.

El Bushra, who, thanks to his former maths teacher who was on stage in the choir, had sung in the New London Children’s Choir (NLCC), described Corp as an “extraordinary educator”. He extolled the level of music-making, the complexity of works, the calibre of orchestras and conductors with whom they worked, and, underlying this “it was all fun. We were just kids.”

Corp had certainly been an “all-round good chap” and mentor, helping El Bushra with his Oxford choral-scholarship application and keeping in touch over the years. “I had just moved into my first flat. I was broke. The boiler broke.” Ron was a “fairy godfather” who came to his rescue. “Ron did like his baths,” Trelawny laughed, directing the audience to the photo on the back cover of the programme of Corp conducting from a luxury tub.

Juritz spoke of a wonderful relationship with his conductor. Conveying enjoyment of music was 95 per cent of a conductor’s job, he said. “Ron could do that.” He paid tribute to Corp’s passion for music that was underplayed, notably that of Milhaud, and the relationship with Ted Perry, the founder of Hyperion, who agreed with him and engineered many recordings. Corp enjoyed a grand project.

There were tributes in the programme, and, throughout the interval, before and after the concert, the most spoken words were “What was your connection with Ron?” All were followed by various stories and anecdotes, many from Trelawny, standing in the stalls during the interval, talking with members of the audience.

This evening could be nothing other than Corp’s ensembles and associates performing Corp’s own music and works that he championed. William Vann and the NLO opened the programme with Corp’s Guernsey Postcards (2004). The left-handed conductor was sprightly, doing just as little or as much as needed, and clearly enjoying this delightful trio of movements. We were transported first to the bustling countryside, bell-like horn phrases taking us on to a carriage ride, with a busy melody passed from strings to the trumpets and woodwind.

A beautiful bassoon melody, played by Lois Au, to the perfect accompaniment of the strings and the harpist Vicky Lester, took us to Pembroke Bay, before we were whisked off to St Peter Port by upper-strings ostinato. Here, shifting accents and time signatures portrayed the sun sparkling on the water, with the percussion providing the glistening sand. It was an exemplar of the light music that Corp so loved and a perfect start on this balmy evening.

Sam Evans took to the podium to conduct the combined singers of the Highgate Choral Society (HCS) and the London Chorus with the NLO in Corp’s Missa San Marco, a commission of the HCS for its visit to St Mark’s Basilica, Venice, in 2003. It was in this work that Corp’s faith could shine through.

The Kyries began with the full massed choir on a unison note, gradually opening out as the petitioner’s cries awakened. Some surprising harmonies ensued, almost reminiscent of Verdi. The Gloria opened similarly in unison, this time with sostenuto horns. Harmonies soon tumbled out, the choir singing in thirds and fourths.

London ChorusChoir and orchestra at the memorial concert for the Revd Ron Corp, in the Cadogan Hall, London

Word-painting abounded with varied orchestration: staccato quavers for “Propter magnam gloriam tuam” and “Cum Sancto Spiritu”, polyphonic writing for “Deus Pater Omnipotens”, and a slower and more reverent tone for “Domine Fili unigenite”, for which the choir were accompanied by just the wind and horns. There was a wonderful climax to the “Hosanna” of the Benedictus, before the delicate pairing of unison soprano and flute in the Agnus Dei.

The choir was at its finest in the homophonic petitioning in the Kyrie and Agnus Dei; Corp’s harmonies and vocal scoring — high bass, and rich tenor and alto close in the middle of the texture — working perfectly with the Latin text and its vowel sounds. All credit to Evans who had the 150-plus singers tightly controlled and together.

If there was one moment, one work, that could be taken out and presented as Corp, it was, for me, when the spotlight turned ­— literally — to the approximately 40 alumni of the NLCC in the gallery to sing Corp’s Elegy for Himself. There was poignant beauty in this music: low strings and harp arpeggios, unison sopranos, floating descending melodies, chromaticism, and more. And Corp the conductor was there in the singing of his former choristers. Their phrasing, enunciation, and tuning were perfect. It sparkled, again under Vann. The joy of singing was visible. Corp’s legacy was living on. It was evident that many, if not all, had continued to sing after leaving the NLCC.

The orchestra gave us another of Corp’s works, a light-hearted piece, Conmotio, in which Ian MacGregor’s direct conducting brought out the offbeats and urgent excitement of the piece. This had “a good tune”, and was another exhilarating countryside trip, perfect for a Sunday afternoon — before parish evensong, of course.

An exquisite performance of Ronald Binge’s The Watermill, played by the oboist Chris O’Neal, led into a movement of London Landmarks by Haydn Wood, in which there was a beautiful counter-melody from the horns. The playing of Francisco Gomez and Jane Hanna was exceptional throughout the evening, with a wide range of styles and techniques on display.

Glover and the baritone Marcus Farnsworth were the perfect choice for Corp’s cantata And all the Trumpets Sounded. Intended as a companion piece to Ralph Vaughan Williams’s Dona Nobis Pacem, it stood up to this, the Britten War Requiem, and the Verdi Requiem, its smaller-scale voices and orchestra notwithstanding. Structured similarly to the Britten, the Dies Irae interspersed with the words of some of the great war poets, there was impassioned orchestral writing, harsh dissonance, power, drama, lyrical melodies, and stillness.

Glover commanded and the forces responded. It was full of great orchestral and vocal word painting, with rhythmic phrases and chromaticism to match. The trumpets did indeed sound, often quite gritty, and with the horns echoing dissonant phrases. The timpani and bass drum kept the harsh reality of war alive, with the military-style snare drum conveying energy and impatience in Walt Whitman’s “Vigil Strange”.

“Rex tremendae majestatis” was a magical moment of the tour de force — trumpet and horn cries, the hollow echoes of the timps and bass drum, and pizzicato strings. Low strings were added, the orchestration such that you could almost hear organ, also. There was a slight rest as a blossoming bassoon solo led into the “Lacrimosa”, with plentiful tritones and sevenths, extending into the Pie Jesu, which kept you longing for a cadence. With glissandos all round, cacophony built up for the reprise of the Dies Irae; we had truly reached the day of wrath in Hades.

This was no easy work, but the singers and instrumentalists were right there under Glover, relaxed, confident, and visibly engaged. The choir was absolutely secure and supported throughout, even when seated for a couple of passages. It looked and sounded effortless. No word was missed.

Farnsworth, too, had us holding his every word and breath as if we were watching opera. His rich voice carried lyrical melodies, powerful pleas, and recitative-like passages on one note through orchestral melodies and choral harmonies alike.

If there was ever an underperformed work deserving of wider knowledge and recognition, it was this. Choirs, churches, concert halls intending to put on a work for Remembrance should start their planning and preparation now.

The concert was the first event for a charity currently being set up, the Ronald Corp Charitable Foundation, to uphold Corp’s values and legacy.