Buckingham Palace may be the most famous place to watch the changing of the guard, but not far away at Westminster Abbey there has been a significant changing of the musical guard in recent times. 

James O’Donnell, who had been the abbey’s organist and master of the choristers since 2000, left in late 2022 to take up a professorship at the Yale Institute of Sacred Music. Previously he had been master of the music at Westminster Cathedral from 1988 where he and the cathedral choir recorded swathes of sacred music for Hyperion, winning many plaudits along the way. O’Donnell continued his impressive recording career at the abbey, and now after some 35 glorious years, it hardly seems possible that O’Donnell’s Westminster recording odyssey should be coming to a close.

Joyously celebrating the vibrant, ongoing musical activity of the abbey, this latest release is centred around four works by James MacMillan, including Who shall separate us, the anthem sung at the queen’s funeral, the last major royal event at which O’Donnell conducted. Typifying the choir’s ability to make musical magic in a short timeframe,...