Before the performance of his piece, Gabriel Jackson spoke to Christopher Cook about his Passion setting - commissioned by Merton College, Oxford, to mark the 750th anniversary of its foundation last year - and about its libretto, compiled by Merton ‘s chaplain, the Reverend Dr Simon Jones.
Divided into seven sections, Palm Sunday; Anointing at Bethany; Last Supper and Footwashing; Gethsemane; Caiaphas, Peter and Pilate; Crucifixion; and The End and the Beginning, Jackson's setting comprises passages from each of the four Gospels, interspersed with Latin Hymns and verses of poetry from writers including T. S. Eliot and World War One poet Edmund Blunden.
