The Elizabethan Peter Philips has garnered a respectable discography over the last 20 years. His motet collection for double choir, published in 1613, is especially well represented on CD. His Marian antiphons are reflective and concentrated, while the celebratory pieces would certainly have sent congregations home with a spring in their step. The seemingly endless repetitions of the phrase ‘in aeternum’ that conclude the opening Benedictus Deus noster may be predictable but they’re so well managed that it’s hard not to smile.

This recital draws almost exclusively on the 1613 set but the variety of performance approaches (mentioned in the booklet-note) keeps the ear from becoming jaded. The Choir of Royal Holloway is a fine one on this showing, its sopranos sounding rather boyish and agile, the overall sound full and well balanced but not overpowering. Although they manage perfectly well on their own (if the Salve regina is any indication), there’s no doubt that having an instrumental ensemble, complete with continuo organ, is a support in more ways than one, and the English Cornett and Sackbut Ensemble do a fine job, ornamenting their lines judiciously without upstaging the singers. Add a solo turn each for cornettist Gawain Glenton and the choir’s conductor Rupert Gough on the organ, and you have a partial but very enjoyable portrait of a composer whose name deserves to be better known.