William Petter - Ablaze With Light

The Guardian 100

The Rose Singers/Foggitt, Paul Plummer (organ)
(Novum)

British choral music lost a rare talent in 2016 with the untimely death of William Petter at the age of 34. This outstanding recording, made by singers who loved and respected him (and who name themselves after his daughter, Rose), makes an uplifting and poignant tribute to a musician who plainly still had so much to offer. There is a timeless quality to his writing, whether it be his moving setting of the Lord’s Prayer or his triumphant hymn-anthem Come Down, O Love Divine; they feel rooted in tradition and yet freshly minted. But Petter’s St Magnus and Vigil masses are his memorial: remarkable for their profound serenity and boundless joy.