Review Susie Digby & Aura Singers – Sanctissima

Modern Thinking and Reference to Tradition: Over the course of a decade, the ORA Singers Choral Ensemble has commissioned 100 composers, most of them from Anglo-Saxon countries. Suzi Digby has whittled the core cast of just 19 voices down to a level of quality that’s technically astonishing. The solos govern themselves for vitreous purity and exquisite mastery of the ensemble with no less than the intensity of discipline. Radiant tonal precision and austere focus can be heard in this recording of Renaissance and contemporary Marian compositions. Not only the ancient pieces follow the directives of the Council of Trent (1563) regarding liturgical music. ORA’s singers are impressively brilliant, and warming sparks are rare. It is no coincidence that the pieces are combined here as the composition seems to be strongly influenced by mathematical functions and laws.

sanctissima
Works by Palestrina, Bednal, Tarney, Joubert, Porter, Macmillan, and others

The Ora Singers, Susie Digby (conductor)
Harmonia Mundi