Any one of the notable aspects of this release from the extraordinary Ora Singers would recommend it to listeners. There are many recordings of Thomas Tallis' monumentally resonant 40-voice motet Spem in alium, but the group and its director, Suzi Digby, deserve special credit for successfully bulking up to 40 singers from the original small group. This is an exceptionally rich performance of this famous work. At the other end of the familiarity scale, the motets in the middle of the program, selected by musicologist John ...
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Any one of the notable aspects of this release from the extraordinary Ora Singers would recommend it to listeners. There are many recordings of Thomas Tallis' monumentally resonant 40-voice motet Spem in alium, but the group and its director, Suzi Digby, deserve special credit for successfully bulking up to 40 singers from the original small group. This is an exceptionally rich performance of this famous work. At the other end of the familiarity scale, the motets in the middle of the program, selected by musicologist John Milsom, contain some rare items and are unified by their patronage origins. Finally, to write a response to, or as Digby has it, a "reflection" on, Spem in alium is a tall order, and it is one that James MacMillan, among the giants of contemporary music in the UK, has filled with flying colors with his splendidly mystical Vidi aquam, with a text from the Book of Ezekiel. Like Tallis' motet, MacMillan's is written for 40 voices, but that's not the half of it. MacMillan manages the...
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