The substantial forces of Bristol Choral Society (BCS) stamp their authority on this interesting and demanding programme from the outset, with a very fine performance of Britten’s Rejoice in the Lamb, featuring accomplished step-out soloists from the choir and lots of contrasts in tone and volume. The team deserves great credit for finally bringing its second recording project to fruition, as Covid wreaked havoc with director Hilary Campbell’s careful plans, but it was well worth the effort. Shakespeare settings by Vaughan Williams, Elizabeth Maconchy and Cecilia McDowall, featuring soprano soloist Charlotte Mobbs, and Holst’s setting of Psalm CXVIII, complement three premiere recordings. Judith Weir’s Praise Him with Trumpets was written for the quincentenary of Hampton Court Palace and is appropriately jubilant. BCS gave the first performance of Grace-Evangeline Mason’s atmospheric A Memory of the Ocean, commissioned by the Royal Philharmonic Society with support from the Vaughan Williams Foundation to mark VW’s 150th anniversary year, and it relishes its elemental drama. The programme concludes with Elizabeth Poston’s Festal ‘Te Deum’, commissioned for the patronal festival of St Matthew’s Northampton in 1959, linking back to the Britten, which marked the same occasion at St Matthew’s in 1943. Recording this piece was a real ‘passion project’ for Campbell, and her choir produces a thrilling sound in the chapel of Bristol’s Clifton College. 

★★★★