Page 301 - FINAL_The Sixteen Coverage Book 40th Anniversary Year

13 November 2018

CLASSICAL

Star of Heaven: The Eton Choirbook Legacy (Coro) ****

At the heart of Star of Heaven are samples of the glorious volume of early 16th century

English church music known as the Eton Choirbook. These range from the artful

polyphony of Walter Lamb’s Nesciens mater and winding melismas of William
Cornysh’s Ave Maria, mater Dei, to the pulsating fullness of Robert Wylkynson’s radiant

nine-part Salve Regina. As ever with Harry Christophers’ The Sixteen, the performances
are liquid gold. What really raises the pulse, though, are the group’s newer

commissions, which give a living context to the older music. James MacMillan’s

substantial O Virgo prudentissima provides a ripe centrepiece to the album, based on a
extant fragment from the Choirbook, but transformed to sublime expressive heights by

MacMillan’s inventive manipulation. There are attractive works by Joseph Phibbs and
Philip Cooke, but of particular interest is Hallowed, a short sequence of settings by

pianist Stephen Hough, written with inspired empathy for his texts. - Ken Walton

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