However, it seems really inappropriate to pre-empt Lent by singing it the day before, and confirms what I've long suspected about Oxbridge Colleges, which is that the daily round of services is often used simply as a means of public rehearsal for the next glamorous high profile gig (this especially used to be the case at New College, Oxford, where service after service would have an "anthem" taken from the next lot of Purcell and Handel to be recorded). Not very nice, IMO, and not what it's all about.
I think that is a very unfair comment, and a cheap attempt to draw a sweeping generalisation from a single occurrence. Rehearsal time is a limited quantity, so it makes sense that, once they have learned new repertoire for a recording, the congregation should get the benefit of it too. It's not as if some completely unsuitable repertoire were being foisted on them.
What you refer to disparagingly as "glamorous gigs" are undertaken primarily to raise funds to supplement the budget that keeps choral services going at these institutions.
Not what it's about? No. Choral services are not what Oxbridge colleges are about at all. Oxbridge colleges are about providing a world class education to their students. We are extremely lucky that the Fellows of SJC see fit to carry on supporting the choir financially when there are so many other calls on the income. Because make no mistake, the pathetic numbers of people who go to the services don't make much financial contribution to it. I'd be surprised if they cover the cost of turning the lights on.
Anyway, according to the chapel music list, the anthem put down for Shrove Tuesday was by Rutter, so the Allegri could only be an improvement
