Music for the Queen of Heaven: Contemporary Marian Motets
The Marian Consort originally made its name with the music of the Renaissance. But the group has also worked regularly with living composers for a number of years. This programme of contemporary Marian anthems – many of them commissioned by the ensemble – celebrates a living, developing tradition where the new is always informed by the old, casting fresh, vital light on these ancient words.
Under its founder and director, Rory McCleery, the Marian Consort has given concerts throughout the UK and Europe, features regularly on BBC Radio 3, and is a former ‘Young Artist’ of The Brighton Early Music Festival. This is the their eighth recording for Delphian.
Reviews
"The Marian Consort’s performances deliver full value in terms of expressive range and sophistication. Pitch-perfect tuning and immaculately clean ensemble grace the poised accounts of James MacMillan’s Ave maris stella which ends the CD. Paul Baxter’s sensitively engineered recording, and an intriguing choice of cover art…add further to the attractions of this eminently listenable recital." BBC Music Magazine
"Anna Dennis’s soaring solo [in the Howells Salve Regina] is deliciously outstanding. Howells’s spirit also hovers benevolently over Hilary Campbell’s scrunchy Ave Maria of 2012. By way of contrast, mock medievalisms are a distinctive features of Cecilia McDowall’s votive antiphon Alma redemptoris mater." Gramophone