HYMNS TO SAINT CECILIA

Here’s a ravishingly beautiful testimony to the abiding allure of music’s patron saint to composers. Focusing on British composers from the last and present centuries, it’s a glorious compendium in every way. Two first recordings catch the attention: James MacMillan’s Cecilia Virgo, a radiant concoction for double choir blissfully fusing bitonality and contrapuntalism; and Gabriel Jackson’s La musique, a substantial 13-minute work setting Baudelaire and Elisabeth Bishop, and featuring Felicity Lott in gloriously crystalline voice. Britten’s Hymn to St Cecilia receives a beautifully brittle and burnished reading from the ever-impeccable Royal Holloway Choir under Rupert Gough (who also provides excellent booklet notes) and there are first-rate performances of Elgar, Vaughan Williams, Bliss and others to enjoy.

MICHAEL QUINN Read the full review on Agora Classica