Conductor Paul Spicer and the Royal Birmingham Conservatoire Chamber Choir present a ravishing, centuries-spanning recital of musical portraits of the Blessed Virgin Mary. Rosa Mystica takes its title from Benjamin Britten’s passionate setting of Gerard Manley Hopkins which forms the centerpiece of the album. The rest of the program ranges from the glorious Tudor polyphony of Nicholas Ludford’s motet Ave cujus conception via Bruckner’s dramatically contrasted Ave Maria to the Norwegian Ole Gjeilo’s simple but sophisticated Second Eve, composed as recently as 2012.
Rosa Mystica – Musical Portraits of the Virgin Mary
