This is truly a disc of two halves: tracks 1 to 13 are Renaissance polyphony by Marenzio (his motet Iste sanctus pro lege), Guerrero (his parody mass on Marenzio’s motet), and Massaino (the Marian motet cycle O beata Virgo Maria); these are followed by three works by living female composers – Melissa Dunphy (her evening canticles for St Paul’s Burlingame), Kerensa Briggs (her Alma Redemptoris mater), and Cecilia McDowall (her St Pancras Magnificat and Nunc Dimittis).

As the album’s title suggests, a Marian thread runs through the programme (only thinly in places – the text of Iste sanctus pro lege is taken from a Magnificat antiphon at Vespers for the feast of a martyr), and the choice of repertoire – especially the rarely-heard Massaino, with its non-canonical text – presents many different facets to Mary. The performances of the older repertoire are clean and well balanced, if not spectacular; where the disc comes alive is in the modern works, particularly Dunphy’s haunting Magnificat and McDowall’s more strident settings.