I was delighted to observe that the Malvern Festival Chorus's performance of J S Bach's B minor Mass merited two mentions in the Malvern Gazette (November 5), a letter from Mr Ian J Morgan and a review from Jill Hopkins.

It is good news indeed to know that young people are attending concerts to hear the music of the great masters, and I certainly appreciate Mr Morgan's positive comments on our performance.

Thank you for raising the issue of names of all the performers in the programme. I, too, enjoy collecting programmes and referring to them some time after the event and it is always interesting to know exactly who was taking part. We shall endeavour to put this right at our next concert and very much look forward to welcoming Mr Morgan in the future.

Jill Hopkins raises a question in her review that should be answered.

The Crucifixus chorus concludes with the words "sepultus est" (was buried) before the work continues with the dramatic "Et resurrexit" (And rose again...). In Bach's inspired setting of these words, he uses the tonality of the music (starting in E minor but ending on a chord of G major) to show that the burial of Christ was not final, but that much more was to come, the resurrection.

The thinking behind the gradual slowing of the tempo with a comma before the final chord hopefully brought out this symbolism in music. In purely choral terms it also ensured we heard "sepultus Est" and not "sepultus Sest"!

For anyone who knows the work and read the review but was unable to attend the performance, please be assured we did not use a harpsichord but a chamber organ - scholarly research concludes that Bach only used the harpsichord in his sacred music if the organ broke down. Also, we did not re-score the 'Et in spiritum sanctum' for flute and oboe but performed it as Bach originally wrote it for continuo and two oboes d'amore.

In spite of the apparent "flagging" from the chorus, the final movement, 'Dona nobis pacem' (Grant us peace), was sung with total commitment, bringing the evening to a triumphant end. As conductor, it was disappointing that my efforts of 39 hours over 12 weeks only brought a personal criticism concerning my attire! Suffice it to say, and following the trend of many a conductor today, it was more important to me to be able have the freedom to conduct this 130-minute work, without the restriction of an over-warm evening jacket and ensure I was able give the music the attention such a masterpiece deserves.

Iain Sloan, director of Malvern Festival Chorus, Holywell Road, Malvern Wells.