Reviewed by Steven Whitehead

This collection of 32 tracks by 12 composers is outstanding value for money and an excellent introduction to the 'English Choral Music` series Christopher Robinson has been putting together since 1999. Choristers have come and gone in that time but the overall sound has remained consistently good. CD 1 stretches from Charles Villiers Stanford, often viewed as the father of English choral music, through to pupils of his including Ralph Vaughan Williams and Herbert Howells. The most famous of all modern English composers, Edward Elgar, also finds echoes in the passionate lyricism of Gerald Finzi, with the distinctive voice of Edmund Rubbra perhaps the biggest surprise of all. The least-known composer is Peter Hurford but his "Litany To The Holy Spirit" is not at all out of place in such exalted company. The music on the second CD starts with William Walton, goes back to Benjamin Britten's very first choral composition, takes in Britten's protégé Lennox Berkeley and concludes with Berkeley's pupil John Tavener. Also included are three vibrant works by Kenneth Leighton.

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