Cappella Nova has a longstanding reputation of championing contemporary music, and its latest album Consecration is no exception. Comprising world premiere recordings in a programme specially curated by Sir James MacMillan, it includes a very personal selection of the composer’s recent choral works. The sequence of five Culham Motets, written for the consecration of the Chapel of Christ the Redeemer at Culham Court on 9 December 2015, show MacMillan at his transcendently numinous best in an emotional and technical tour de force, setting texts of visionary and mystic ceremonial power. Consecration also includes MacMillan’s well-beloved St. Anne’s Mass along with a fascinating collection of works written for family occasions: the weddings of two of his children and his father’s Requiem Mass. This is the fourth instalment of Cappella Nova’s celebrated MacMillan series on Linn.
