Approachable without being apologetic, emotional but with a sense of dignity, the best of these works can both delight and challenge...Everything is performed with elegance and the requisite intensity, and the recordings are clear and atmospheric.

The group's engagement with the music registers throughout this important release, touching everything from the technical challenges of the second series of Strathclyde motets to the comparably demanding simplicity of MacMillan's papal Mass...The breadth of the composer's ideas and his myriad expressive contrasts, reinforced by superb singing and instrumental contributions and gold-standard recorded sound, hold the ear and invite repeated listening.

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...[an] essential addition to the rapidly growing discography of one of Britain's most self-assured musical voices.

Above all, this is beautiful, affecting music that is also severely practical...one of the chief pleasures of listening to it resides in the ease of imagining taking part in a performance. As with the earlier MacMillan release, Cappella Nova under Tavener's direction delivers performances every bit as luminous and attractive as the music itself.

This is an absorbing disc. It is full of interest and I admire greatly the way in which the composer responds to the words he is setting. Through his music he enriches and enhances them – as a good musical setting of words always should. We are challenged at times but it’s always accessible.