O Maria, virgo pia – Review by Choir & Organ
“Vocal challenges are met throughout with seeming ease. There’s much to admire and intrigue.” ★★★★
20th April 2026
O Maria, virgo pia – Review by Choir & Organ
“Vocal challenges are met throughout with seeming ease. There’s much to admire and intrigue.” ★★★★
20th April 2026
Listen or buy this album:
Marking the 700th anniversary of Oriel College’s foundation with an original anthology closely related to parts of its history – from medieval Marian liturgical song to the Oxford Movement and beyond – thirty highly disciplined singers show their credentials in recent works including the numinous Oriel Service by Judith Bingham. Glowing strings evoke the mystery of the Incarnation in Maw’s I sing of a maiden (the Tippett Quartet also accompanies Edmund Fellowes’s unjustly neglected The Hymn of the Third Choir) and other highlights include Phillip Cooke’s mysterious The Glory of Zion. Vocal challenges are met throughout with seeming ease. There’s much to admire and intrigue and no want of ‘spirit of place’ even though it was recorded in Keble Chapel.
Review written by:
Review published in:
Other reviews by this author:
Featured artists:
Featured composers:
Marking the 700th anniversary of Oriel College’s foundation with an original anthology closely related to parts of its history – from medieval Marian liturgical song to the Oxford Movement and beyond – thirty highly disciplined singers show their credentials in recent works including the numinous Oriel Service by Judith Bingham. Glowing strings evoke the mystery of the Incarnation in Maw’s I sing of a maiden (the Tippett Quartet also accompanies Edmund Fellowes’s unjustly neglected The Hymn of the Third Choir) and other highlights include Phillip Cooke’s mysterious The Glory of Zion. Vocal challenges are met throughout with seeming ease. There’s much to admire and intrigue and no want of ‘spirit of place’ even though it was recorded in Keble Chapel.
