This is a Hildegard recital with a twist, the life and work of the saint (canonised in 2012) interpreted not only through her own words and music but also through responses to it by several contemporary composers, written for this trio of women’s voices, whose members first cut their teeth with Sinfonye, the ensemble led by Stevie Wishart. The centrepiece is a cycle of miniatures by Laura Moody, each of which explores a distinct facet of Hildegard’s persona. Several of these threads are picked up by the other new works, all of which audibly relate to her music, being neo-tonal in style, with a strong dash of modality. The result is a very coherent, engaging programme.

Voice’s aesthetic differs from those of like-minded a cappella female ensembles such as Anonymous 4 or Trio Mediæval, where the sound recording privileges homogeneity and conspicuous polish. A closer analogy might be with La Reverdie, who do however use instruments and favour a more reverberant acoustic. Though recorded in a church, the ambience is comparatively dry and the miking focuses on the grain of the individual voices (having said which, they blend impeccably when needed). But overall the production is reminiscent of recent trends in some popular music, which make a virtue of vocal kinks and rasps rather than seek to minimise them. Of course, this more ‘authentic’ feel is itself constructed, and engineer Adrian Hunter has interesting things to say about how certain effects were achieved. Aseruz trium vocum, one of the pieces written (or adapted) for Voice by Wishart, makes the most of their distinctive timbres and individual virtuosity, and ‘The Living Light’, the final movement in Laura Moody’s cycle, is perhaps most satisfying of all the new music on offer, deepening the game in terms of form and style. If I had but one criticism it would be that the new works are so closely aligned stylistically: a figure as protean as Hildegard would surely encompass a broader aesthetic palette.