Music

Album reviews, plus Ken Walton on the concert remembering First World War veteran Cecil Coles

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 ninepart 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.