Reviewed by Simon Carpenter

"Cathedral Praise." What image does that conjure up in your mind? Maybe it's just me, but I get pictures of a temporary borrowing of the local Anglican HQ by all of a city's Christians for a big jamboree, or the invariably excellent resident choir of that HQ performing some of the gems from their repertoire. Well, put such thoughts away. This present CD is neither of those scenarios, but rather is a pretty average choral society-type choir singing a rather unadventurous selection of hymns and other standard "sacred type" works. The only connections that justify ICC using the description "cathedral" come from the fact that the recording is accompanied by a pipe organ and was made in a church - St Cuthberts, Edinburgh. Oh well, hey ho. Among the hymns given yet another workover here are "Crown Him With Many Crowns", "Love Divine All Loves Excelling" (with a rather dodgy organ arrangement), "Praise My Soul The King Of Heaven", and you can probably guess the rest. But having said all that negative stuff, there are two performances here of pieces which I think are more the choir's home territory and which bring the best out of them. These are "Jerusalem" and "I Vow To Thee, My Country". I particularly liked the diminuendo/rall combination at the end of the latter. Not enough reasons to recommend that you go out and buy the CD, but pleasing nonetheless.

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