‘Justice for Goss’ used to be a favourite rallying-cry of mine, one that brought few supporters and little encouragement until the appearance of this present disc. Six recordings of The Wilderness as set by S. S. Wesley are already available, this one making the seventh; of Goss’s setting, it is, currently, the sole offering. Perhaps we now have to concede that Wesley wins, but Goss does the tidier job, and his choruses, especially, have a purposeful energy within them, a sense of economy in the places where Wesley most luxuriously spreads himself. If we believe that Jesus died also deserves its new-found place in the catalogue, fine in its blend of fugal and homophonic styles, admirably structured towards its culmination and unexpectedly quiet coda.
Other gaps in the current catalogue are filled by Jeremiah Clarke’s I will love Thee, with its Vesuvian “trembled and shook”, and the excerpt from Mendelssohn’s unfinished Christus oratorio with its “There shall a Star” chorus catching a note of authentic inspiration. These are things the choir do well, and the performers are generally best as a choir, rather than in anthems with solo work, where the quality is somewhat variable (all credit, though, to Nicholas Bishop, treble soloist in the introductory recitative of the Mendelssohn). The recorded sound also deserves grateful note as it accords the choir due presence and does not (as too often happens) leave us feeling that they are singing away in the stalls while we are sitting a long way off in the nave.'