A Rose Magnificat

The latest recording from Paul McCreesh and the Gabrieli Consort is not one of their customary blockbusters. There is still plenty of impressive music, but the grandeur is generated through top-notch a cappella singing rather than a cast of thousands. This bouquet of Marian music by English composers has blooms plucked from the Tudor period interspersed with offerings from this century and last, making for some interesting contrasts and intersections.

 

Kenneth Leighton’s rarely heard Of a Rose Is All My Song launches proceedings, exploring the traditional metaphor of the Virgin Mary as a rose. Ruth Provost’s free-flowing soprano has a marvellous fluidity and expansiveness here that puts the listener in a receptive mood...