Though this CD provides a moving liturgical representation of a traditional Anglican evensong, its valedictory nature colours the performances with an inescapably melancholy tinge, one reinforced, at least to me, by the doleful strains of Howells’s Master Tallis’s Testament as the opening voluntary and Tallis’s Sancte Deus which follows as the introit. It was with some sadness that the Abbey School at Tewkesbury (the vision of its founder, Miles Amherst) closed in 2006 after 33 years of productive artistic existence. This recording therefore stands as a fitting memorial to the institution’s admirable achievements, measured not only by the regular services but by foreign tours, concerts and commissioned works. One such commission, sung here with ardour, is Gabriel Jackson’s highly evocative Magnificat and Nunc dimittis, a work that clearly alludes to the numinous textures and rich harmonic “sound moments” of Howells. The Gloucestershire association of Howells, who is also represented chorally by his magisterial Te Deum from his Collegium Regale, is further emphasised by the inclusion of Vaughan Williams’s Valiant-for-Truth. Sung with real passion and conviction, this is, for me, the highlight of the disc. From time to time the organ pedal is apt to boom, which is occasionally an uncomfortable distraction, but this does not detract from the splendid and generally well-balanced sound of the choir and the carefully chosen programme.