A Winged Woman in Bloomington, MN

The
Marian Consort
is best known for Renaissance music, but the group occasionally ventures into contemporary repertory, and what makes it interesting is that it offers fresh ways of grounding new works in the past.
A Winged Woman
is as contemporary as one could ask, with no traditional choral pieces at all, and the three non-premieres are from the 20th century (or, in the case of
James MacMillan
's
Laudi alla Vergine Maria
, the very beginning of the 21st). There are also bold techniques here, such as the exhaled sounds in
Dani Howard
Unbound
. The program, in keeping with the group's name, has a female and, in some cases, feminist tinge. Yet much of the music is inventively rooted in the past. The best may come right at the beginning with
Electra Perivolaris
'
title work
, which combines multiple texts in the fashion of a medieval motet, one of them by
Hildegard of Bingen
.
Chloe Knibbs
Esse indubitatamente son Donne
is inspired by a work by Renaissance composer
Raffaella Aleotti
. Taken all together, this release ties together contemporary pieces to musical traditions as well as any other that has appeared lately, and it is consistently absorbing and beautifully performed with no discomfort in the wilder pieces. All of the music is a cappella, and the concentration never flags.
Linn
delivers excellent sound from the All Hallows' Gospel Oak church near London. ~ James Manheim