Whose favourites? Well, by a happy coincidence, mine. But, more importantly, they are clearly favourites of the two conductors who bring to these performances a warm-hearted fondness which is as indefinable as it is apparent. Peter Phillips naturally shows great stylistic sympathy for Morley, Byrd and Tallis, and If ye love me is performed here with deliciously expansive melodic fluidity.

Benjamin Nicholas directs compelling performances of the more modern items on the disc, including Jonathan Dove’s scintillating Te Deum and the title-work by Patrick Gowers, with its captivating double organ accompaniment, masterfully handled by Charles Warren and Peter Shepherd. At times Nicholas’s enthusiasm results in a slight loosening of the reins (as in Elgar’s Give unto the Lord), which causes a certain blurring of the textural edges, but these perceptive performances lack for nothing in their interpretative conviction.

The Merton choir’s singing is notable for its clarity. The polyphonic lines of Byrd’s Diliges Dominum, the antiphonal effects of Harris’s classic Faire is the heaven and even the dense textures of Parry’s Blest pair of sirens have about them an almost glass-like transparency. If there is a flaw, it’s in the slightly over-rich tone which, in Rutter’s The Lord bless you, compromises the essential purity of this exquisite little gem.

Even if not every item is a personal favourite, this is a lovely collection of good music, well performed, beautifully sung and exquisitely recorded. Who could ask for anything more?