James MacMillan would seem to be delving further and further into his Catholic roots; not so much a regression as a self-exploration. He is rapidly furnishing the sacred choral repertory with music which continues the long tradition of setting sacred texts in a musical language which is restrained, refined and deeply beautiful. Nothing revolutionary or cutting-edge here; just well-crafted music, highly accessible and designed to illuminate rather than obscure the texts. Two separate discs explore different aspects of MacMillan’s choral output, both containing material which is new to disc. Most impressive, from a performance standpoint, is Cappella Nova, a Scottish-based group founded in 1982 by Alan and Rebecca Tavener. Their previous disc of MacMillan (Linn, 1/08) included the first set of Strathclyde Motets originally written for liturgical use by the University of Strathclyde Chamber Choir. Here they introduce us to the second set, which MacMillan composed between 2007 and 2010 (we are told this is the ‘final’ set: we shall see).

As on their previous disc, Cappella Nova present illuminating performances which perfectly capture MacMillan’s profound sense of the sacred, but here the sense of looking back over the centuries is especially strong. It is particularly vivid in Os mutorum, which is performed here by traditional harpist, William Taylor, and the four voices of Canty, who bill themselves as Scotland’s only professional Medieval music group (three of its four singers, it should be said, appear in the vocal line-up of Cappella Nova).

The Birmingham Conservatoire Chamber Choir’s disc has less a sense of looking back as of being part of a living evolution of sacred music. They mix their MacMillan selection with music by Kenneth Leighton and their assertive, slightly harsh tone is certainly well suited to Leighton’s chromatic idiom, not least in a finely honed account of the Missa Sancti Thomae. It also brings a potent sense of anguish to the powerful three-section Cantos Sagrados, an expression of what MacMillan admits to be his ‘interest in liberation theology’. In terms of repertory and performance, these two discs are entirely complementary and are essential additions to the rapidly growing discography of one of Britain’s most self-assured musical voices.