First – a pleasant surprise almost like news of an unexpected half-holiday at school – here is an addition to that splendid series of records by the choir of St John’s under former director Christopher Robinson which one assumed had ended with the latter’s retirement last year and their Stanford disc of 7/03. Then – happily noted on behalf of readers who, with a liking for Leighton, may already have the recital by St Paul’s Cathedral Choir on Hyperion and wonder whether there may not be too many duplications to justify a second purchase – the programme does not overlap with its predecessor except in two items, both of which gain substantially from the new recording.

Crucifixus pro nobis was a work commissioned by the tenor Neil Mackie, who sings the solos absolutely as to the heart’s desire in the earlier record, but James Oxley, with St John’s, is a worthy successor, and the choir’s part in the work is much helped by the acoustic to achieve greater clarity in the words. The solemn reverberance of Wren’s cathedral brings a dramatic colouring to the climaxes of the third section, but the clearer air of St John’s is better suited to the chill of the opening. And when it comes to the final section and the setting of ‘Drop, drop, slow tears’, well, at St Paul’s they drop just too slowly (3'36") even for that mighty building, whereas St John’s (2'09") has it proportionately right. As for the other duplicated item, the Second Evening Service, it now comes out of the mists and half-lights into the freedom which is its element.

The John’s touch is there in all this – right from the first phrases of the first track, the other Magnificat (Collegium Magdelenae Oxoniense), with its enthusiasm in the verb, the ‘magnify’, and in its object, ‘God my saviour’. Both are wonderful settings, as are those in Easter Sequence with its trumpet obbligato. In this business of record-reviewing I find, on the positive side, music and performances I like, more that I admire, some that I love, but not much that evokes affirmation from the soul. This does.