Reviewed by Steven Whitehead

Your reviewer is always pleased to receive new recordings of work by James MacMillan as he is a composer who I pay money to hear, either on disc or in the concert hall. Kenneth Leighton, on the other hand, is one of those composers whom I find admirable but who does not produce such an enthusiastic response from me. My loss, no doubt. So this new release featuring first recordings from both composers may not have been one that would have had me reaching for my credit card but I am delighted to report that the two composers sit very comfortably together, perhaps due to the fact that the young James MacMillan (born 1959) studied under Kenneth Leighton (1926-1981) at Edinburgh University from 1977 to 1981. However, my initial responses to this CD were that Birmingham Conservatoire Chamber Choir sing very well indeed, often unaccompanied, and that producer/engineer Gary Cole has yet again given us a demonstration standard recording, this time at St Alban's Church, Highgate, Birmingham. If you have any interest in contemporary choral singing this release is worth hearing. The content is shared between the two composers. Both have a major piece: Leighton's "Missa Sancti Thomae", here given its first recording, and Macmillan's "Cantos Sagrados" which we have heard before and which is reviewed in a different recording elsewhere on this website. The shorter pieces are by no means make-weights and we predict that MacMillan's "The Song Of The Lamb", another debut recording, will become much better known, in which case you can say that you heard about it here first.

The opinions expressed in this article are not necessarily those held by Cross Rhythms. Any expressed views were accurate at the time of publishing but may or may not reflect the views of the individuals concerned at a later date.

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