The first item here is the completion and culmination of Sequentia’s heroic 30-year path towards recording the entire music of Hildegard on eight CDs. Begun by Barbara Thornton but interrupted by her early death in 1998, this has been a seriously good production throughout, always abreast of the latest research, always beautifully documented, always presenting the music in the most lucid form possible, never cutting corners and certainly never playing to the gallery. These are people who know that the music is able to stand on its own virtues. For this last disc, Benjamin Bagby has assembled what is almost a roll call of Europe’s finest female singers for this kind of music and has managed to create a miraculously coherent monophonic choir, from which each of the surprisingly varied voices in turn is allowed to have a solo spot. This is all quality music-making. Everything goes to serve the unending variety and refinement of Hildegard’s music (and indeed her poetry, beautifully translated by Lawrence Rosenwald into English for the booklet). We should salute Deutsche Harmonia Mundi for supporting the whole project; we can look forward to the box-set that should stand for many years as the definitive statement on Hildegard’s music; and of course we should salute Benjamin Bagby, who will surely receive many ‘lifetime achievement’ awards for its completion and for its consistent excellence. The other item is a new composition created from the music of Hildegard’s Ordo virtutum, her theatrical piece with distinctive dramatic verve. Dietburg Spohr has arranged it for the five female voices of her Ensemble Belcanto (with just an added girl’s voice and two speaking voices); and she has done it mainly in the language to which they are accustomed, namely of contemporary vocal music. The variety of sounds they can produce is truly impressive, as is the virtuosity of the singers. And what is perhaps most important is the way Spohr resists the temptation to highlight or exaggerate the dramatic details of the Ordo. There is no text provided; but the booklet gives a most useful and original summary of the story (in German only).