Contemporary British composers have not shied away from setting the texts of the Requiem. Notable recent examples by David Bednall, David Briggs, David Halls and Bob Chilcott have followed the success of John Rutter’s powerful (and now classic) 1985 example. Now Signum has released the first recording of a wonderfully vivid setting in Latin by Grayston Ives (b1948), composed in 2008 during his long and distinguished tenure as Informator Choristarum at Magdalen College, Oxford, specifically for liturgical performance. Although Ives acknowledges that ‘many influences are thrown into the musical melting pot’ (including his teacher Richard Rodney Bennett), he remains thoroughly his own voice. This is an important work.

As a former King’s Singer, ‘Bill’ Ives, steeped in the Anglican choral tradition, writes magnificently, as might be expected, for his mixed vocal forces. His idiom is tonal, his harmonic vocabulary packed with delicious things. Textures have an abundance of variety and the orchestral accompaniment is a further demonstration of his ear for colour. His word-painting skills draw out every dramatic impulse, especially in the quicker sections of the concluding Libera me, which are juxtaposed with moments of achingly beautiful stillness, and the almost over-short Sanctus, which bustles with a brilliant Stravinskian energy.

Ronan Busfield’s tenor solo in O Domine, Jesu Christe is finely etched and makes a telling contrast to the magical beauty of the ‘Quam olim Abrahae’ passage, which shows just how much can be squeezed from a gentle descending scale. Budding composers please note. The a cappella Benedictus features some gentle hocketing between the tenors and basses and the Pie Jesu is by turns wistful and soothing. Just occasionally the blend of the boy trebles and the adult sopranos’ vibratos becomes a little bleat-like, for example in the more exposed higher lines of the Lux aeterna. Duruflé hovers respectfully at a safe distance, offering an alluring benediction over the concluding In paradisum.

Ives’s exquisite score is played to perfection by the Britten Sinfonia. Congratulations to the Jesus College choir and Richard Pinel on such an impressive achievement, given the pressures to accomplish this recording within just days of the first lockdown in March 2020. A treasure of a disc, superbly engineered.