Arthur Bliss thought Bliss's music competent but unremarkable. In 1961, Bliss and Hassall collaborated on a cantata, "The Beatitudes", commissioned for the opening of the new Coventry Cathedral. Reviews were friendly, but the work has rarely been performed since, and has been eclipsed by another choral work written for Coventry at the same time, Britten's "War Requiem". Bliss followed this with two further large-scale choral works, "Mary of Magdala" (1962) and "The Golden Cantata" (1963). Throughout his life, Bliss was vigilant on the state of music in Britain, about which he had written extensively since the 1920s. In 1969 he publicly censured
History of Coventry untrue – Winston Churchill was aware that a major bombing raid was to take place, but no-one knew where the raid was meant to strike before it was too late to evacuate. After the war, the city was extensively rebuilt. The new city centre built in the 1950s was designed by young town planner Donald Gibson and included one of Europe's first traffic-free shopping precincts. The new Broadgate was opened by H.R.H. Princess Elizabeth in 1948, and the rebuilt Coventry Cathedral was opened in 1962 next to and incorporating the ruins of the old cathedral. It was designed by Basil