The St Thomas Choir of Men & Boys take John Rutter’s edition of Fauré’s 1893 score as the basis for their recording of the Requiem, carefully presenting it in the wider context of the composer’s sacred works, well known or otherwise. Conducted by John Scott, it’s a forthright, devotional interpretation that avoids heavyweight solemnity without losing sight of the work’s ritual elements. Once past the opening chords, the Introït has a processional spring in its step. There’s a dignified austerity in the playing, with a dark richness in the strings, and the St Luke’s brass warm and dignified at the climaxes.

This is a fine choir, the treble tone appealingly bright, altos and tenors unearthly yet beautiful in the Offertoire, and the tenors on their own super-refined at the start of the Sanctus. David Pittsinger is the admirably consolatory baritone, and his son Richard the secure treble soloist in the Pie Jesu. The reverberant acoustic of St Thomas’s Church itself adds immeasurably to the liturgical atmosphere, though we lose some orchestral detail and the balance is top-heavy, the lower voices sometimes obscured. As one might expect with such a frequently recorded, editorially complex work, the competition is stiff, not least from Stephen Cleobury’s scholarly account (King’s College, 10/14) and Paavo Järvi and the Choeur de l’Orchestre de Paris (Virgin, 5/12), altogether grander in approach, using the 1900 score.

Cool, unsentimental performances of the Cantique de Jean Racine and the Messe basse are among its companion pieces. Less familiar is the Op 65 pairing of the Ave verum and Tantum ergo from 1911, possibly written for the Madeleine trebles, though the published score stipulates female voices. Plainchant morphs into something curiously like Gounod in the Ave verum; Tantum ergo, with its closely woven solo writing, is perhaps more immediately attractive. Both, however, are most persuasively done.