From the three sets of unaccompanied motets Brahms composed at various times, only one from the second set (Op 74) and the complete final set (Op 110) are included on this disc, revealing an intriguing juxtaposing of stylistic influences. Bach is very much in evidence in the four-section Warum ist das Licht, while Brahms’s study of the Renaissance polyphonists strongly flavours the shorter Op 110 motets, and all are infused with the lush harmonic vocabulary of late-19th-century Germany. Cappella Amsterdam perform these works with immaculate poise and a wonderfully rich breadth of tone, magically captured by this warmly atmospheric recording. Daniel Reuss induces a sumptuous sound from his singers, no question about it, but whether he more than dips an interpretative toe into the complexities of Brahms’s sacred motets is open to question.

Certainly the secular works on this disc come across with far more conviction. The choral sound is never anything but immensely beautiful; but, wonderful as the unaccompanied singing is, the intense beauty of the Song of Destiny is, if anything, enhanced by the gorgeously moulded accompaniment from the piano partnership of Philip Mayers and Angela Gassenhuber.

The latter pianist crops up again in a delicate and discreet account of one of the solo piano Intermezzos which makes a surprising bridge between the Bach-like chorale which closes the Op 74 motet and the first of the Op 104 songs. This might have seemed more of an incongruity than it actually is, were it not for the thick layers of aural lacquer coated over the whole programme. As it is we slide seamlessly from piece to piece, rarely disturbed enough to ask quite what this strangely mixed bag of a programme is trying to tell us.